Riga, Latvia&rsquo;s Skaņu Mežs festival for adventurous music will host its 21st edition on October 6-8 at concert hall Hanzas Perons. Last year, Geeta Dayal of The Wire magazine praised Skaņu Mežs as &ldquo;wildly ambitious&rdquo; and called it the &ldquo;biggest avant-garde and experimental music festival in the Baltics&rdquo;.

Headlining the festival this year will be Berlin-based Finnish duo Amnesia Scanner, once described by The Guardian as &ldquo;one of the cornerstone acts in the electronic underground&rdquo;, with a refined version of the show they presented at the closing concert of this year&rsquo;s Transmediale. They will perform on October 7.

Amnesia Scanner - AS Tearless (feat. Lalita)

On October 6, improvising guitarist Joe Morris, described by The Wire as &ldquo;one of the most profound improvisors at work in the U.S.&rdquo;, will perform alongside bass player William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, hailed by Phil Freeman as &ldquo;the best rhythm section in jazz right now&rdquo; and as &ldquo;Two icons of free jazz&rdquo; by Tom Schulte.

Joe Morris at Rhizome DC

A special guest of Skaņu Mežs will be Raven Chacon - the first Native American composer to win the Pulitzer prize for music, and, in the words of The New York Times, &ldquo;the first harsh noise musician to win the Pulitzer&rdquo;. He will perform a solo set, and his string quartet The Journey of the Horizontal People will also be performed by the Mivos Quartet, described by Chicago Reader as &ldquo;one of America&rsquo;s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles&rdquo;.

First Native American composer to win Pulitzer Prize on his experimental process

SHAPE+, the EU-supported and Skaņu Mežs-co-founded platform for innovative music, will be represented by Israel-born, Berlin-based composer Maya Shenfeld in collaboration with video artist Pedro Maia. They will perform at the opening event of the festival on September 30, which will also feature a showcase of British grime label South London Space Agency and a performance by Danish producer Hvad alongside local acts Flowerpower, KODEK and TV Maskava.

Maya Shenfeld: Body, Electric (Official Video)

Extreme and experimental metal will be well represented at Skaņu Mežs this year: the line-up features Mories de Jong&rsquo;s solo act Gnaw Their Tongues, a key act of the Dutch extreme metal scene, once described by The Quietus as being &ldquo;at the viscerally misanthropic end of the musical spectrum&rdquo;. The Japanese band Violent Magic Orchestra, on the other hand, describes itself as an &ldquo;extreme art music project&rdquo;, boasting a disorienting live show that utilizes strobes, smoke machines, high volume and live visuals, consuming a whopping 5000 watts - the equivalent of 60 amplifiers. Fact magazine has described the band as a &ldquo;beloved black metal supergroup&rdquo;.

VMO - You are hate  @ SHIBUYA全感覚祭

Experimental pop music will be heard at Skaņu Mežs by spoken word artist, post-grime musician and NTS Live show creator Coby Sey as well as singer-songwriter and film score author Daniel Blumberg. Post-punk veteran and genre-crossing Japanese vocalist Phew will perform on the same evening as Debit a.k.a. Delia Beatriz, whose album The Long Count, released by Modern Love, earned the &ldquo;Global Album of the Month&rdquo; description by The Guardian, reimagining the sounds of ancient Mayan musical history.

Coby Sey - Onus

Max Eilbacher, another SHAPE+ participant and member of Horse Lords, will perform computer music on the same evening as The Vex Collection - an ensemble that uses new and surprising combinations of traditional instruments and original music contraptions.

The Vex Collection - When We Took The Fire (demo reel)

Thanks to Skaņu Mežs&rsquo; participation in sound art-oriented project tekhnē, two performances will happen offstage - Maria Chavez and Jordi Wheeler will perform in the lobby of the concert hall, whilst text/multimedia art group Orbīta will perform in a separate room next to main concert space. After the conclusion of both performances, sound art installations will remain in said locations.

New Sounds Presents: Maria Chavez

Finally, a free-entry concert evening will be held on October 8 in collaboration with LYRA, a project for kids and teens that is supported by the EEA Grants and Norway Grants funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The concert starts at 13:00 to encourage younger adventurous listeners to attend it, and the line-up features PAN signee Evita Manji, guitarist and vocalist Stian Westerhus, composer Peter Ablinger with percussionist Sylwia Zytynska, the duo of composer Anna Ķirse and visual artist Miķelis Fi&scaron;ers, and sound artist Alexander Rishaug with visuals by Ingrid Bj&oslash;rnaali.

Stian Westerhus - Neverending Story (rehearsal excerpt)

Full overview of the program is available at <a href="https://www.skanumezs.lv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.skanumezs.lv</a>. Tickets at <a href="https://www.ticketservice.lv/eng/tickets/festivals/nepieradinatas-muzikas-festivals-skanu-mezs-skanu-mezs-festival-for-adventurous-music-2023-85686/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ticketservice.lv</a>.

Riga festival Skaņu Mežs holds 21st edition

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