The Most Famous World Music Group from Latvia: Iļģi and "Visi Meži Guni Dega"

About 20 years ago, when I made my first ever trip to Europe, I met a young woman from Riga, Latvia while I was at a meeting in Germany. She was impossibly blond, thin and ethereal and pale almost like a China doll, she dressed in the February chill in a fur hat and warm wools, and she had only a little English with a strong accent. Needless to say, I was somewhat smitten (as I usually am with foreign women with accents). I don't remember much about her other than that - she was with a young man but we exchanged addresses and wrote a couple of letters back and forth before both of us stopped writing. I think it was that sense of foreignness, and all of the sights and culture and beauty and language and the rest I didn't know about Latvia that lay behind her that really got me smitten.

 I am a ardent devotee of travel, and over the past few years I haven't done enough of it. When it comes to places I would like to visit, I'm like a kid in a candy store. In other words, so many countries are out there that I can't choose one to see. I'd love to see Latvia, to visit Riga, to hear Latvian folk songs and modern Latvian rock, to eat Latvian food and drink Latvian spirits. Latvia could well turn out to be like Wisconsin, a place I've lived and loved, except with people who speak a Baltic language. I wouldn't care. I would want to see it and experience it anyway, even for a few days. Now that I'm married, I'm past the days and the desire to put moves on Latvian women, but to hear a female Latvian accent would still excite the old hormones just a little bit.

Latvia comes up because today's band is Iļģi, self-described as "the most famous world music group from Latvia." Iļģi was formed in 1981, during the days of the Soviet regime in Latvia which made it a client state of the Soviet Union along with its neighbors Lithuania and Estonia. Iļģi's focus was on the folk music of Latvia, and they traveled around the country looking for folk songs that had never been recorded. In looking for these folk songs, they also uncovered tradition and history that the Soviet government found dangerous because delving into folklore was seeing as an act of dissidence. Their concerts, in which they wore traditional costumes and played traditional Latvian instruments such as the kokle (stringed instrument) and the dūdas (a type of bagpipe) had to be approved by government officials and any perceived non-compliance from regulations could result in a canceled concert or a ban. For a while, their name and that of other folklorists was forbidden to be mentioned in the media. Thus, the band and their work and music were hidden from much of the public for years.

The collapse of the Soviet system freed Iļģi from all restrictions, and also probably freed them from strict adherence to folk music. Musicians being musicians, Iļģi wanted to explore what they were capable of musically and they began to transition from a pure folk band to a post-folk band, where the music became infused with other influences besides Latvian folk. Iļģi still remains true to the traditions - the member of the band who has been with them longest teaches Latvian folk traditions to school children, for example. However, they continue to find their way as a post-folk band. For awhile they went to completely electric instruments, but a new generation of music lovers in Latvia have been demanding to hear more of the traditional music, and Iļģi has been going back to the old instruments.  Their music has been described as reflective and meditative in some songs, and upbeat and full of vitality in others. They've been honored many times both in Latvia and abroad, and their 2006 album Ne Uz Vienu Dienu, a collection of Latvian wedding songs from various areas of the country, was was voted second best European world music album of 2006 by World Music Charts Europe. They are also five time winners of the best Latvian contemporary folk album. They have released thirteen albums and two greatest hits compilations.

This song, Visi Meži Guni Dega, is from their 2006 album Ne Uz Vienu Dienu.