Latvia is located in Eastern Europe, bordering Estonia, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania.
Latvian Music
The resurgence of the folklore movement in Latvia began in the early 1980s. At the time the movement was more of a political statement than a musical trend. Singing and plying was inevitably linked to Latvian history, archeology, ethnography, mythology and traditions and the nascent independence movement.
Since all of these subjects were, if not banned outright, at least partly forbidden and not a topic for discussion under the Soviet occupation and communist regime, song and dance became an intricate part of the preservation of Latvian culture. As a result folk ensembles became de facto centers of national and cultural studies. (source: Ilgi)
In 2009, Latvian “Suiti cultural space” was added to the List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The “Suiti cultural space” is found in a small Catholic community in predominantly Lutheran western Latvia, characterized by vocal female drone singing, wedding customs, colorful costumes, the Suiti language, local cuisine, and folk songs, dances and melodies, at present only familiar to a few, mostly older people.
Latvian Music compilations
Best of Folk Music From Latvia (ARC Music, 2008)
Music from Latvia (Cooking Vinyl, 2007)
Latvian Musicians
