Auļi

The drum and bagpipe music group Auļi is known for its powerful, loud and original sound created by six bagpipers, three drummers and a bass player. Listeners both at home and abroad appreciate the group’s drive, which seems to literally carry them forward. Auļi is an instrumental group, and therefore it is natural that they enjoy collaborating with singers. Last year they created the Voices of the Ancestors album and concert programme, collaborating with powerful male singers representing a variety of musical traditions, including Sami joik singer Kai Somby, Mongolian throat singer Batzorig Vaanchig and Austrian yodeller Albin Paulus. Likewise, during this year’s lockdown, Auļi developed nontraditional solutions to singing and playing together with others. For example, they invited all of the bagpipe players in Latvia to join together in a song online. This vivid bagpipe melody from Alšvanga is one the oldest known examples of traditional Latvian instrumental music. “Ozoliņi”, for its part, presents an original way of being together and inspiring each other at Midsummer. Unable to gather in large groups to celebrate Latvia’s favourite seasonal festival this year, Auļi invited folklore groups from across the country to record a song together.