Folklorist Asnate Rancane and musician Stanislavs Judin met at a time when both were still in search of their own modus creandi. The duo's debut record Op. 2, which garnered high praise from both listeners and critics, marked the confluence of folklore’s legacy with free improvisation, without clearly definable genre boundaries.

They have held on to this free flowing approach — the artists aren't attached to traditional song structure and are free to go in search of new shapes and textures using folk and contemporary music collage techniques. Each of these elements — words and sounds — can exist separately, yet together they create a unique, unrepeatable feel.

The sound geography of Op. 3 encompasses all of Europe — from Bulgaria to the British Isles, including ancient Prussia and historically Latvian lands. If you had to look for one unifying element between these seemingly different regions, it would be music from an era when people were homogenous and the musician served as emissary — a ferryman for
different stories and musical fragments. Words and sounds were fashioned from equivocal motifs based on collected communal experience. Thus, the artwork was often larger than its author, containing an irrational message within it, and the...  more