What’s Next In Music? & Loftas Festival – Vilnius, Lithuania

The New York scratch king is in modest mood tonight, choosing to point the spotlight toward the wealth of talent the rap community has brought the world over the years rather than himself. His set is like a guided tour of the MCs that changed the world, from legends like Notorious B.I.G. to lesser known but equally vital candidates like Tribe’s Q Tip, Prodigy and the recently departed Fatman Scoop. It, as you might well imagine, goes down an absolute storm.

But the set from Flash is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the weekend’s festivities. In downtown Vilnius, next door to the Lithuanian Parliament no less, the imposing but impressive Corinthian columns of the national library play host to delegates from all over Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and – especially – the Baltics, for two days of industry panels intent on discovering – or at the very least discussing – What’s Next In Music?

There are panels on emerging music scenes like India and Poland and a fascinating discussion on pooling resources across the Baltic states, with promoters joining forces across Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to keep costs down and encourage acts to tour entire the region. There’s a captivating discussion on the challenges faced by festival promoters, from the weather to the lack of decent headliners, from a number of persepctives from Lisa Nasta, who books Glastonbury’s Green Futures Field, down to a rather downbeat Polish promoter whose event has been forced into a hiatus this year due to the cost of living crisis.

On the Saturday, delegates are taken on a fantastic guided tour of the capital, from the brutalist beauty of its Soviet train station – once a stop off point for passengers travelling from St Petersburg in Russia to Warsaw in Poland – to the catholic and orthodox cathedrals and the free republic artist quarter of Užupis, where the houses are covered in murals and the air is thick with the smell of skunk.

Vilnius certainly is an amazing place to visit, but it’s also fast putting itself firmly on the map as a musical destination too. Juno customers will be familiar with labels like underground deep house crew Rayonas, the esteemed dub techno institution Greyscale, and the ranks of the country’s vinyl stables is sure to increase with the opening of the Deepgrooves plant. After their guided tour – and a leisurely lunch in the park, natch – delegates are given a first hand demonstration of their green-as-possible poroduction line, where records are lovingly stamped by hand.

What’s Next In Music? also boast their own stage at the Loftas Festival, highlighting the best Lithuanian acts around. Ambulance On Fire (pictured, below) are top of the locals’ recommendations lists and their electro acoustic experiments are unique, out there and generally pretty ace, proof that bands here follow no-one else’s lead.

The jazzier grooves of Illume and Kedrostubùras and the indie guitar maneouvres of boebeck and Tarantino fans I Love You Honey Bunny also provide entertainment. But the Loftas event, like all great events, has a lot to discover. There are kink workshops and rope bondage demonstrations, living art installations and a warren like set of buildings that unexpectedly reveal hidden rooms boasting pounding techno and hip-hop DJ sets. Behind the the main stage there’s another, indoor stage and behind that, roof terrace where the DJ is cutting up techstep drum & bass and speedy techno – and people are lapping it up like it was the most natural thing in the world.

After a quick refuelling session, where we’re encouraged to try the local delicacy of potato pancakes, wild mushrooms and cottage cheese served up by an enthusiastic, techno loving couple in a mobile kitchen who ply us with impossibly strong, clear liquor and pink soup as we wait, it’s time to meet the locals.

These people love to chat and they love their music – Juno Daily’s kind of people, in other words. Within a couple of hours we’ve had conversations about the telekinesis between Speedy J and Surgeon, the benefits of drum & bass on the neurological pathways of babies, Yoko Ono at Cafe Oto, Pansonic’s first album, Thurston Moore’s record shop and the double meaning of the expression ‘sound guy’ in English.

It’s an embarrassment of riches, hailing from many different corners of Europe. Latvia’s Elizabete Balčus knows how to stage a spectacular, that’s for sure, from the huge headwear she sports to the fruit she has connected up to her equipment, turning the energy charge they give off into crazy sound.

It’s not just a visual treat, either – from her huge, near-operatic opening to the Kash Bush-meets-Aphex vibes of later moments, echoing Gabriel-era Genesis with a twittering flute too. Balčus also puts in an appearance the following night on what proves to be another top moment of the Saturday night, dancing alongside a duo from the very opposite corner of Europe from her, Romanian duo K Not K.

The band (pictured, above) were formerly named Karpov Not Kasparov, and made music based on the rules and strategies of chess. With one man on synth and vocals, the other on live drums, their folky electronica is instantly loveable and inviting, like a more lively version of the music Ultramarine made when they teamed up with Robert Wyatt.

They start out playing to a tiny handful of friends, and it looks like their performance is destined to go underappreciated. But, in the kind of wonderful moment that only the chaos of a festival can throw up, an act on the main outdoor stage finishes and suddenly a huge crowd of several hundred people troops in together and forms a lengthy circular conga line. You have to blink to make sure you’re not dreaming, but it seems like an entirely logical response to the joyful noise they make.

Well worth checking, mate, you might possibly say. As indeed is what’s going on Vilnius and Loftas in general. Top place, top people and an emerging scene to keep an eye on.

Ben Willmott

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Publish date : 2024-09-24 10:12:00

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