Zari

© OHM.LV

‘Z A R I’ – ‘branches’ in English, ‘zweige’ in German

The group itself says the following:an ensemble of psychedelic music through the prism of antiquity based in Liepaja – town on the west coast of Latvia.

The group works about 5 years, bringing together six creative musicians from Liepaja with a variety of experiences in the musical field.
The ‘ZARI’ music have been based on Latvian folk-song tunes. The band gives an unusual sound to the already known ancient texts using a variety of electronic instruments, along with acoustic instruments. The important thing is not to lose the wisdom of all that ancestor roots and folk songs, so the musical group tries to combine the past, the present, and the future. The aim of the group is to create a ear and heart-pleasing musical fusion without losing the message and magical power of Latvian folk songs.

The group, with it’s first album called ‘SAZAROTI’ – ‘branched’ in English, ‘verzweigten’ in German, wants to convey to the audience a whole new art that has transformed from the meditative folk into more powerful, more electronic sounds and more experimental music. The album is a look into new dimensions that describe our era in music and folk songs. The band’s sonorous base is composed of synthesizers accompanied by multi-singing, acoustic and electronic hybrid drumming, interesting guitars and percussion sounds.
ZARI members come together from all sorts of different musical styles, projects and well known bands in the past like – ‘Balķi’- folk; ‘Nasty Smile’- alternative rock’; ‘The Briefing’- acid, indiepop. Although the group sits in the same tree, but each on it’s own branch, as each member brings other breeze to the music, therefore the name – ‘ZARI – SAZAROTI’. This album also got nominated at Latvian music annually awards “Golden Mic 2018” as world music album.

ZARI are:
Liene Krizevica – vocals, whistle, percussion
Ieva Dreimane – vocals, flute
Vinsent Krebs – accordion, percussion,
Uldis Melkis – guitars, effects
Sandis Volkov – drums, Simmons electronics, photography/design
Zigmar Miemis – producer, synthesizers, electronics

After releasing it’s first music album ‘SAZAROTI’, the band ‘ZARI’ hasn’t stopped at work and continues to look for new ways in the musical action. The group has now started work on original melodies to be released in the near future.

“When creating the new pieces, the ‘ZARI’ continues to remain faithful to the ancient texts of the Latvian people. Both folk songs and spells are being wedged into the tunes they created. These texts are an inexhaustible rich and unique legacy of our nation, which does not lose it’s spotlight and power today. In our view, these texts are not frozen in the testimony of an era, their messages are up to date and unique through times. It is therefore very exciting to look at how they live with our own music, with the sense of today’s human world and the musical capabilities that nowadays offers,” the members of the group say about future songs.