rave by Anete Krastiņa

Design Anete Krastiņa

rave

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Interview with Viktors Buda Deep Baltic Interview: Era of dance / Will Mawhood

23:00 Era of dance Viktors Buda

04:30 Interview Unknown

01:30 Interview Liāna

03:00 Interview Donatello

What was the attitude of the authorities?

This must have been very dif youth movement the with previously. If w Latvia in the So Riga was the could get regard diffe s

Many people might be surprised to know that one of the key influences on dance music in Latvia came from a man already in his late 40s at the time when the scene started to develop, Indulis Bilzens. Could you tell me a bit about his story?

His life story is worthy of being filmed. Bilzens is one of the most important and, at the same time, underrated people of the last decades. He is a man of the era. I would say he is one of the most notable cultural diplomats of the ’80s and ’90s. He has been connected with the sphere of electronic music since the end of the ’60s when there was no DJ culture. In fact, he became one of the first outsiders who entered into the electronic music environment. Here it’s worth mentioning Cologne in the ’60s and the University of Düsseldorf, which at that time was almost the only university where it was possible

to study electronic music machines and their structure. Bilzens as a historian of culture was more interested in the principles on which to base this new innovation. The University of Düsseldorf from the end of the ’60s was a significant period because at this same university were studying a couple of guys who later became know to the world as Kraftwerk. They are not personally connected; however, they operate in parallel. Bilzens always knew how to influence to develop things and at the same time stay behind the stage curtain.

23:00

e Soviet

fferent from any ey had to deal we talk about oviet times, e closest you to the West. Different people ded the new innovations in erent ways. One part of society categorically refused to accept anything new. The other part was interested and involved in the new movement.

If we talk about Latvia in the Soviet times, Riga was the closest you could get to the West. Different people regarded the new innovations in different ways. One part of society categorically refused to accept anything new. The other part was interested and involved in the new movement. Communicating with witnesses and participants in those events, it became clear that the Soviet authorities didn’t really understand what this movement of electronic music represented. I think

23:30

the arrival of techno culture was justified more by the lack of information from the Soviet authorities than their precise position.

So when did techno reach the and how did it get there?

Techno first appeared in the B in 1986. The Baltic countries ha always been a bridge between the West and Eastern Europe – this was true even in the Soviet era. In the context of the history, all of us were more attracted not to the fact that it came first, but the personal story of the heroes themselves in this historical adventure…

00:15

Baltic states,

Baltics ave n

There’s a clear connection with Berlin in the film – and the time period covered obviously coincides with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why was this city so important? The second half of the ’80s changed everything. Berlin became the centre of Europe very quickly after the wall came down. What was happening in Berlin was considered influential and music has always reflected social phenomena that are present. But the story told in the film began much earlier and the early stages of any process always have a very special aspect.

Why do

Mmmm you ca more i depen Differe In som people people after I perhap

01:30

Any memories of your first rave? I don't know if you can call it a rave, but I was at festival Komēta. There was an insane moshpit where the group Spāre played, that was in 2016, when I was sixteen years old and that was, yeah, pretty intense. That was one of the first times I took substances like psychedelics. All that was something that I could define as a rave.

o you go to raves?

m … I like to dance and there an dance like nowhere else, it's intimate. I like the people, but it nds on the venue and the event. ent locations, different people. me places there are really cool e and in others — not. These e charge me in a way that feel energetically recharged, ps that's my reason.

Where in often?

I usually s to stand b I like it the to the mu at the bac that come do. It's no

02:00

the venue do you dance most

stand in the middle, I don't like by the side. I go in the middle, ere. In the middle I connect usic the most, and I think that ck there are a lot of newbies e in and don't know what to ot the best vibe at the back.

Do you have anything that you don’t like in raves? Hmm … I don't like when people go to raves not for the music but for the sake of flirting with someone, that makes everything much worse. When I was at a rave recently, it looked like some people didn't come there for the music, they just annoyed the people that wanted to hear the music. That is what I don't like.

What ar with rav

Freedom don't kn of every I feel like f w