The knowledge of life on the part of the soldiers and the love for the country. For the group of men “Wolves” – 30 / Art

The “Vilki” men’s team currently consists of six men. Everyone has worked in the group since its foundation 30 years ago. During this time they have released 13 albums, performed countless concerts, the last 10 years are particularly productive, when they tend to have up to 100 concerts a year. Because they mostly perform in schools and for a young audience.

The two upcoming anniversary concerts in Riga will be somewhat atypical for “Wolves” this time around, because – says band member Edgars Lipors: “Because very often we go through all times chronologically, we talk about history, but

this year we thought, knowing all the ups and downs that are happening in the world, that it will be a fun event, that life should also be celebrated in 30 years.

The concert will have various topics. Of course, the theme of a soldier through the ages, the story of a soldier’s life, but also various other themed songs “.

Songs about girls are an integral part of the repertoire, but the foal, beer and, in general, the whole rhythm of life, with which the soldier is closely connected, is also sung a lot.

The “wolves” search for songs for their repertoire both in transcribed popular music material and in direct contact with the soldiers themselves, and – as members of the group Uģis Treide and Jānis Atis Krūmiņš admit – there is still something to be excavated for this. regard, because there is always something unknown.

“From time to time some songs of the national partisans or the legion appear. Little known, little sung. For example, we were at Puriņtėv and we got a song about Bermontiada. My husband was 98 when he gave that song. We never, wherever we hadn’t heard the song “, reveal members of” Wolves “. “Now, we recently received a call from the Occupation Museum that there is a man in Kandava, very old, who has been in Mordovia. He would be happy to give us the notebook with the songs they sang. Since the Mordovian notebook is Ad expect us in Kandava, we haven’t met yet. One is these old songs, but nowadays there are new songs as well. We have a brand new song on the album “Bunkurs 13”, created in 2015 “.

The members of the group chose the name “Wolves” because the wolf, being very intelligent, well organized in the pack, was like a master of the ancient soldiers, their totem.

The group has operated under the name “Vilki” since 1992, but in general the foundations of the soldiers’ folklore movement were laid as early as 1980, when the history teacher Māris Ošs created the Engure folklore group named after Jukum Vācieš.

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It also included Andris Balcers, who is now also one of the “Wolves” members. Remember that during the Soviet years, collecting soldiers’ songs and performing them in different audiences created a strong feeling of solidarity with the whole nation: “Our goal was to sing in schools, universities, in the first group we also sang at the Daile Teatro, where the prima donna Mirdza Martinsone fell on the neck of Māris Oš and the others, and said that for the first time in a long time she sees the male image of a Latvian soldier on stage.

Because until then there were only female groups in folklore, which, of course, are also very important, but still on stage they always rejected their male heroism.

Since the occupiers didn’t need it, they needed us to be humble, obedient. But we raised this male heroism through Latvian archers. And of course we picked it up. “

Being in the same line-up for 30 years is a very rare thing among bands, but “Wolves” have succeeded. Participants Edgars Lipors and Andris Balcers argue: “Perhaps this name” Wolves “suggests that we bark like wolves, but we are tied up together for 30 years and more, that we are already like a family in a way. We know a lot about each other, the oddities and oddities of each. But still, like a family, everyone sticks together and does one thing. We are together and we will be together for a long time. Even though we often get along with each other in a subtle and sometimes quite poisonous way, God forbid, if someone from the outside tries to bite one of us, then it takes all six of us back. “

The group “Vilki” will celebrate its 30th anniversary with two concerts in Riga. The first will be on 5 November in the cultural center “Imanta”, the second – central concert – on 10 November in the Great Hall of the Latvian Society in Riga.

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