Zodiaks
Zodiac (russian: link=no, Зодиак, lv, link=no, Zodiaks) was a Lativian space disco music band that existed in the 1980s in Latvia, then a part of Soviet Union. The band was extremely popular in the Soviet Union and has been credited by critics as the Soviet answer to the French band Space who were popular at the time. Biography Zodiac was formed by Jānis Lūsēns, then studying composition at the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga (now Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music). The other four members of the group were also students of various faculties of the same conservatory. Zodiac's first vinyl record ''Disco Alliance'' (russian: link=no, Диско альянс, lv, link=no, Disko alianse) was released in 1980 on the monopolist Melodiya label, during the band members' studentship. The album was produced by Aleksandrs Grīva, the father of band member Zane Grīva. The music featured a lot of then-unusual synthesized sounds and effects together with more conventional ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jānis Lūsēns
Zodiac (russian: link=no, Зодиак, lv, link=no, Zodiaks) was a Lativian space disco music band that existed in the 1980s in Latvia, then a part of Soviet Union. The band was extremely popular in the Soviet Union and has been credited by critics as the Soviet answer to the French band Space who were popular at the time. Biography Zodiac was formed by Jānis Lūsēns, then studying composition at the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga (now Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music). The other four members of the group were also students of various faculties of the same conservatory. Zodiac's first vinyl record ''Disco Alliance'' (russian: link=no, Диско альянс, lv, link=no, Disko alianse) was released in 1980 on the monopolist Melodiya label, during the band members' studentship. The album was produced by Aleksandrs Grīva, the father of band member Zane Grīva. The music featured a lot of then-unusual synthesized sounds and effects together with more conventional ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mikrofona Ieraksti
Microphone Records ( lv, Mikrofona ieraksti or short MicRec) is a Latvian record label and distribution company founded in 1993 (although it can be traced back to 1992, when its first record was released under the '’MicRec'’ brand label) by professional radio journalist Elita Mīlgrāve and professional record producer and musician Guntars Račs. Since 1996, Microphone Records has a license agreement with the EMI Group on promoting and marketing EMI and Virgin artists in the Baltic states. Microphone Records owns the following labels ''MicRec'', ''Aktiv'' and ''Raibā Taureņa Ieraksti'', and also operates as the official distributor for the Sony BMG, Universal Music, Playground, Elap and Going for a Song record labels, among others. Microphone Records has a publishing division "MicRec Publishing" the sub publisher for EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV. Some of Latvia's most famous pop, rock and dance music artists are signed with Microphone Records: Raimonds Pauls, Prā ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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PPK (group)
PPK (russian: ППК) is a Russian trance duo based primarily in Rostov-on-Don. The group consists of and . The name 'PPK' is the abbreviation of founding members' initials; K was for short-time member DJ Kordj (Roman Korzhov). Career PPK became known internationally due to their single "ResuRection", which was available to download for free on mp3.com. A few million people downloaded it and such a wave of popularity brought to signing a contract with Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label and was used to celebrate the New Year 2003 in Warsaw, Poland (seen on Sky News Active, 31 December 2002). This song was the first from a Russian act or USSR act to ever enter the UK Singles Chart. The song reached number 3 in the UK and Sergei Pimenov, Alexander Polyakov and band's manager Yury Marychev were awarded with Silver Disc award certificated by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and indicated sales of over 200,000 copies in the UK alone. "ResuRection" was based on the original melody wr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, 2013 World Women's Curling Championship and the 2021 IIHF World Championship. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). In 2017, it was named the European Region of Gastronomy. I ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and ''fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the grea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zane Grīva
The name Zane may be a given name or a surname. Its western usage derives from the Venetian form of ''Gianni'' or an alternate spelling of the German and Jewish name ''Zahn''. An Arabic name Zain, Zayn, or as it is often anglicized Zane, is an Arabic personal name meaning "beauty, grace". It was popularized as a given name in the early 20th century through the American writer Zane Grey. Zayne is an alternative spelling. Notable people with the name Zane or Zayne include: Given name Zane *Zane Banks (born 1986), Australian guitarist *Zane Beadles (born 1986), American football player *Zane Buzby, American actress *Zane Copeland (born 1982), American rapper better known as "Lil' Zane" *Zane Eglīte (born 1984), Latvian basketball player *Zayne Emory (born 1998), American actor *Zane Francis, Australian singer and Triple J Unearthed National Indigenous Winner at the National Indigenous Music Awards 2015 *Zane Floyd (born 1976), American murderer *Zane Frazier (born 1966), American ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Record Producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music'' (Cambridge, MA & London, UK: MIT Press, 2005).Richard James Burgess, ''The History of Music Production'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)pp 12–13Allan Watson, ''Cultural Production in and Beyond the Recording Studio'' (New York: Routledge, 2015)pp 25–27 The record producer, or simply the producer, is likened to film director and art director. The executive producer, on the other hand, enables the recording project through entrepreneurship, and an audio engineer operates the technology. Varying by project, the producer may or may not choose all of the artists. If employing only synthesized or sampled instrumentation, the producer may be the sole artist. Conversely, some artists ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Celesta
The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box (three-octave). The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators. Four- or five-octave models usually have a damper pedal that sustains or damps the sound. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal because of their small "table-top" design. One of the best-known works that uses the celesta is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from ''The Nutcracker''. The sound of the celesta is similar to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre. This quality gave the instrument its name, ''celeste'', meaning "heavenly" in French. The celesta is often used to enhance a melody line played by another instrument or sect ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ARP Odyssey
The ARP Odyssey is an analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972. History ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, and less complicated "performance" synthesizers. ARP produced several versions of the Odyssey from 1972 to 1980. In early 2015, Korg reissued the Odyssey in cooperation with the original designer and ARP co-founder, David Friend. Design The Odyssey is a two-oscillator analog synthesizer, and one of the first with duophonic capabilities (the ability to play two notes at the same time). All parameters, including a resonant low-pass filter, a non-resonant high-pass filter, ADSR and AR envelopes, a sine and square wave LFO, and a sample-and-hold function are controllable with sliders and switches on the front panel. Features *Switchable between sawtooth, square, and pulse waveforms with oscillator sync, a "ring modulator", and pink or white noise. (As with the Kor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ARP Omni
The ARP Omni was a polyphonic analog synthesizer manufactured by ARP Instruments, Inc. Overview The Omni featured preset, electronically generated Orchestral ensemble String voices including polyphonic Violin and Viola sounds as well as monophonic Bass and Cello. The instrument also included a monophonic Bass Synthesizer section and a polyphonic Synthesizer section. The Synthesizer section featured a 24 dB/oct Voltage-Controlled Low Pass Filter (LPF); an ADSR envelope generator and a single waveform (triangle) Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) were both routed to control the VCF Cutoff frequency. A Waveform Enhancement switch allowed selection of a square wave voice waveform vs. the default quasi-sawtooth waveform. The ARP Omni had a unique logo that was painted on to the back face of the unit. Voicing The String and Synthesizer sections of the 49-note Omni utilized the Mostek MK50240 Top Octave generator IC along with divide-down circuitry; as a result, these section ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rundāle Palace
Rundāle Palace ( lv, Rundāles pils; german: Schloss Ruhental, formerly Ruhenthal or Ruhendahl) is one of the two major baroque palaces built for the Dukes of Courland in what is now Latvia, the other being Jelgava Palace. The palace was built in two periods, from 1736 until 1740 and from 1764 until 1768. It is situated at Pilsrundāle, in Rundāle Parish, Bauska Municipality in the Semigallia region, 12 km west of Bauska. History In 1735 Duke of Courland Ernst Johann von Biron bought land in Rundāle with an old medieval castle in the territory of a planned summer residence. The old castle was demolished and construction after the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli started in 1736. Construction proceeded slowly because part of the materials and resources were transferred to the construction of Jelgava Palace, a project which was more important for the duke. Following Biron's fall from grace in 1740, the palace stood unfinished and empty until 1762 when Biron returned from hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Courland
Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. The largest city is Liepāja, the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were formerly held by the same duke. Geography and climate Situated in western Latvia, Courland roughly corresponds to the former Latvian districts of Kuldīga, Liepāja, Saldus, Talsi, Tukums and Ventspils. When combined with Semigallia and Selonia, Courland's northeastern boundary is the Daugava, which separates it from the regions of Latgale and Vidzeme. To the north, Courland's coast lies along the Gulf of Riga. On the west it is bordered by the Baltic Sea, and on the south by Lithuania. It lies between 55° 45′ and 57° 45′ North and 21° and 27° East. The name is also ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |