Ēnu kaleidoskops

‘Ēnu kaleidoskops’ (The Kaleidoscope of Shadows) is a neofolk band from Riga, Latvia whose beginnings may be traced to the Autumn of 2004, when Mārtiņš Links – the band’s guitarist, vocalist, piper and poet – was studying in Kaunas (Lithuania) and was easing his exile by walking in the local oak park talking with will-o’-the-wisps, blackbirds and juniper bushes with a sound recorder and a flute in a hand. That was the place where most of the band’s songs were created. After returning to Latvia, the songs were recorded anew with more instruments – a violin, a bass guitar and drums. The idea of ‘Ēnu kaleidoskops’ is to create a new mythology for today. And the shadows keep changing in the shadow kaleidoscope – getting darker, covering each other, shaping new life forms. That is the world besides us – ever shaping, ever unknowable.