Digital Wanderer | Forest of Sounds Festival

Forest of Sounds Festival - 2007

2007-05-17

Well, let's get down to the serious task - the story of the untamed music festival Skanu Mezs, meaning Forest of Sounds.

I shouldn't be the one thanked for the wonderful word "untamed," but the organizers. In the mainstream press, however, they used a dumber epithet - innovative.
The ticket stated the start at 19:00. At that time I had just finished my dinner at Lido with an awesome pork and onions, fried in a deep fryer. Then I picked up my friend Andrei, who is a pseudo-anarchist and punk sympathizer. Having charged the batteries for our cameras, and mentally prepared ourselves, we headed to Andrejsala, which in English is Andrei's Island. Andrejsala is a former port factory, the territory of which has now been handed over to all sorts of independent artists and other creative youth. The musicians performed in the galdnieciba workshop, meaning the carpentry workshop. When we approached the workshop at 9 pm, there was hardly anyone there, but those who were present spread a familiar, lovely smell around the area, similar to the smell of coffee. But even they were very few.

A view of the city waterway with many moored yachts and boats. On the opposite bank rises an old high-rise building, a modern cable-stayed bridge and other city structures reflecting in the calm water under a cloudy sky.
A slice of the Daugava, the Cable-stayed bridge in the distance

An industrial landscape with a large corrugated metal warehouse, partially covered with graffiti, in front of a wide concrete yard. In the background, other structures, trees, and a person on a bicycle can be seen.
The Andrejsala territory

An old two-deck vessel with a rusty light hull and rows of square windows moored at a concrete pier. On the lower deck, 'DO NOT MOOR' is written in red paint, and on the pier in front of it, metal rails with a multi-colored flat object and young greenery are visible.
Floating workshop N609

Sigh. And why don't I have a crappy DSLR?

In the foreground is a large pile of construction debris made of stones and concrete fragments on dirt ground with sparse grass. Behind a metal fence, industrial buildings are visible: a tall silver building, two red and white smokestacks, several cranes, and a long warehouse with graffiti, all under a bright, overcast sky.
Lovely pebbles

On an old brick wall in a window opening, there is an anime graffiti: a stylized girl with long hair smoking a cigarette against a yellow-beige background. To the right of the window, an electrical box with the inscription "AVE" is visible.
And no less lovely drawings

The stage awaits its users

The following bands and individuals performed on the final day of the festival:
1.No Neck Blues Band (US)
2.Stella (EE)
3.Mazen Kerbaj & Raed Yassin & Sharif Sehnaoui (LB)
4.Prurient (US)
5.The Books (US)
6.Ural Owl (Gas of Latvia & Kaspars Rolsteins) (LV)
7. Mouse on Mars (DE)

Naturally, the schedule didn't even come close to reality - NNCK started around 10 pm, and Mouse on Mars finished at almost 6 in the morning.

NNCK played what they have plenty of on their albums - a viscous knocking-and-rattling improvisation. True, it was accompanied by a performance clearly on a forest theme, in order to match the spirit of the festival. For the first five minutes, the frontwoman lay on her back on the stage with her legs up. When the music started, she began to artistically wiggle her pantyhose-clad legs, clearly depicting how violently the forest of sounds grows and blooms. A leshy walked past her, dressed in a fishing net. He had a huge stick in his hands, which he sometimes drummed on the stage with. I'm warning you right away - the video, especially the noise sets, sounds like absolutely nothing.

Several musicians perform on a dimly lit stage in front of a large white screen. A guitarist sits on the left, a person in patterned clothes with raised arms is on the floor in the center, and two standing musicians are on the right: one plays the guitar, the other plays an unusual wooden wind instrument with an attached drum.
Legs and arms growing like mushrooms

The girl then finally grew head-side up, started singing and playing a Casiotone. She turned out to be Asian, which kind of makes sense - they are often wild female musicians.

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