Recent events in Ukraine highlight the heterogeneity and fragmentation of the understanding of freedom, evident in polarized public opinion and the overarching inability to agree on a framework for conversation. But amidst the turmoil, there is something unifying and common - freedom as a treasure that everyone wants to preserve, albeit in their own form. The value of freedom is inestimable - it is a value that can be agreed even by people who otherwise hold very different views and come from very different times and freedoms.
We invited three musicians from different generations and different freedoms - Haralds Sīmanis, Helēna Kozlova and Aleksandrs Barons - whose singing, voices, and attitudes are a source of strength and support and a general confirmation of the possibility to be free.
Helēna Kozlova is a bright and charismatic personality on the Latvian music map, the owner of a charming voice and the creator of transcendent music. Helēna Kozlova was once the soloist of the band Skumju Akmeņi, then started performing alone. Since 2005, Helēna has been the creative core of the band Levīti, but now continues to perform alone as a singer-songwriter, playing both the guitar and piano.
Haralds Sīmanis is a Latvian singer-songwriter. He is a roofer by profession and an organ player by occupation. Having mastered the guitar and organ all by himself, Haralds became well-known in 1980 when he performed his ballad “Lake” at the final concert of the Microphone Song Survey, a ballad whose sound was very different from anything that had been broadcast before.
Aleksandrs Barons. Sad songs only.