Astrowind might be a slightly ridiculous band name, especially if you consider the fact these two Latvian guys play lush ambient music on Soviet synthesizers. But nevertheless, it’s a good name. An accurate name, at least. Because there is a feel of acroamatic escapism, there are these huge chords of hissing analogue synthesizers and you can even find this special kind of Slavonian melancholia (or Baltic, respectively) people use to rave about. Astrowind bring up a lot of references in their beautiful and, well, obsolete music. 70’s Krautrock Avant-gardists like Cluster or Harmonia make up for the most obvious comparison, but you can also find some influences from contemporary composers like Arvo Pärt (listen to the stagnant organ-chords on Impressions) or Terry Riley (the overall tonality). Add some traces of experimental guitar-music (on The Night the Stars Flew for instance) and you get an idea. But who’s behind the Astrowind-moniker? Kriipis Tulo is an important figure in the electronic music-underground of Riga, the humming capital of Latvia. He founded the Kolka-Music label, released several EPs at Nexsound, Sutemos and Synergy Networks and travelled Europe for several live-gigs. He was collaborating with a lot of influential artists ranging from fine arts (Ritums Ivanovs, Voldemars Johansons) to free improvisation (Derek Holzer, Maksims Shentelevs). After collaborations with Rodions Zolotarevs (duo Oloolo) and I/DEX, he started Astrowind in late 2006 with Mahi Bukimi. The Night the Stars Flew is a four track-monument you shouldn’t miss. It’s helplessly out of fashion and ignores maybe two decades of electronic music, namely Techno, Minimal and Glitch (tough you can hear Tulo dropping some deep Minimal-tracks at his myspace-account). A brave, a good decision. Astrowind got the harmonies and the sound to become one of the most interesting Baltic acts to emerge from a scene rich of innovative musicians (Muschraum, Joel Tammik, Selffish, to name just the most obvious).

Live performances:

28 | 05 | 2009  live @ 'Live Performers Meeting 2009' in Rome, Italy.
16 | 05 | 2009  live @ 'Muzeju Nakts 2009' in Riga, Latvia.
27 | 09 | 2008  live @ 'Klusais Siltums 2008' in Liepaja, Latvia.
30 | 08 | 2008  live @ 'Klusa Daba 2008' open-air electronic music mini festival in Riga, Latvia.
05 | 07 | 2008  live @ 'Tundra 2008' open-air electronic music festival in Lithuania.
03 | 04 | 2008  live @ opening of 'Dreamers' a new exhibition of well-known Latvian painter Ritums Ivanovs
06 | 10 | 2007  live @ the 'Hea Uus Heli Festival 2007' electronic music festival in Tallinn, Estonia.
25 | 08 | 2007  live @ the 'Cybergraffity' - installation by A.Punte (Orbita), Andrejsala, Riga, Latvia.
25 | 08 | 2007  live @ the 'Klusa Daba 2007' electronic music festival in Riga, Latvia.
09 | 06 | 2007  live @ the 'Mijatmina' music festival in Riga, Latvia.
19 | 05 | 2007  live @ the 'Mikrofakti' in Riga, Latvia.
12 | 05 | 2007  live @ the 'Skanu Mezs' electronic music festival in Riga, Latvia.

"Der Leuchtturm" mp3 Resting Bells 042 2008
Download full album in ZIP file

Welcome to the new Astrowind-release. Kriipis Tulo and Mahi Bukimi put together nearly 78 minutes of warm and floating Astrowind-sounds. They released albums on such great netlabels like 12rec, Electrosound and Musica Excentrica, and now they are back on Resting Bell, where they released “Somewhere The Music Had Been Played“ one year ago. “Der Leuchtturm“ is the german phrase for “lighthouse“, and the album is dedicated to the old city Libava, now Liepaja, the baltic seaside and the lighthouses there. Warm and deep synth-drones are floating around like some obscure fog, and in-between little glitches, higher tones, samples from far, far away and melodie-fragments are blinking like an old lighthouse, guiding you through the dark and abyssal carpet, woven by old analog synths and desktop fx’s. Please have also a look on the fantastic artwork, done by Grisha Kochenov. (Christian Roth)

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astro [at] astrowind dot net

Astrowind albums are available in mp3 format all around the web, but if you want to enjoy the authentic analog sound of Astrowind music, you can buy the audio-cd, that is made from original high-quality material, using paypal. Price: 6 Euro including worldwide shipping.