On April 2, the cultural space Bolderāja (Avotu Street 29) will host the presentation concert of a new cassette by artist Kaspars Groševs’ electronic music project Figūras. The album is titled Selected White Tapes, Vol. 1 and is released in collaboration with Skaņu mežs. The event starts at 21:00. Admission is free.
Selected White Tapes, Vol. 1 was created by selecting the most vivid fragments from eight white cassettes recorded in March 2015 during an artist residency at Rupert, which at the time was located between a river and a forest. Over eight days, eight hours of improvised material were recorded directly onto cassette, using only a Roland MC‑505 groovebox and a TC Electronic delay/loop pedal. Figūras was originally conceived as a platform for creating improvised music using limited means and allowing maximum space for mistakes and chance. Much of the Figūras material has been recorded directly to cassette or digital recorders, eliminating the possibility of post‑processing.
“Just like in the process of painting, in music I try to give space to ‘flow’ – an intuitive set of gestures and turns,” says Groševs. “In a way, the ‘White Cassettes’ were created within a conceptual frame/limitations that revealed the sense of time, sonic influences, and interests of that moment.”
From the eight hours of cassette recordings, the “best” hour and a half was selected and, in collaboration with musician, artist, and DJ Michael Holland, compiled into a one‑hour recording. The album was mastered by Aleksis Luriņš.
Kaspars Groševs (1983) graduated from the Visual Communication bachelor’s and master’s programs at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2014, he has been the co‑founder and curator of the artist‑run gallery 427. In 2017, Groševs, together with Kārlis Biķernieks (Labais Dāma), founded the cassette label No Sex Just Talk. Since 2006, Groševs has actively participated in exhibitions, performances, and cultural events in Latvia and internationally. His artistic interests revolve around the processuality of art, curatorial practice, and sound practices, as well as dissolving the boundaries between them, often working at the crossroads of different creative communities. Having worked with experimental electronic music since the late 1990s, sound frequently appears in his exhibitions as a complement to visual methods, in which painting also plays a significant role. Groševs’ works are part of the Latvian National Museum of Art collection and many private collections in Latvia and abroad. He was nominated for the Purvītis Prize in 2020 and 2022.
The presentation concert will be performed in collaboration with Aleksis Luriņš a.k.a. Ritunsiic. The sound created by Ritunsiic generally resembles a photo album, except that here the images are replaced by sound waves – captured across different stages of life and in accidental, often intuitive situations.
Ritunsiic blends rural field recordings, industrial noises, and ambient structures, creating spatial soundscapes that feel both nostalgic and tense. The project was started at a moment when processing and renewal were needed, and it often collaborates with visual artists and architects, expanding the boundaries between sound, space, and memory.
The cassette Selected White Tapes, Vol. 1 will be available for purchase at the event and at future events organised by Skaņu mežs. The price is 10 EUR. A digital release of this recording is not currently planned.
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