KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE. APRIL 2017

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE

Rock‘n‘Roll

Illustration by Tadas Bujanauskas

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This edition was supposed to be very different. Not better or worse than it is, just different, with different perspectives. But we didn’t make it on time.

The unfinished story Kęstutis Lušas didn’t make it too – the world said goodbye to him on March 21st. The respected musician and initiator of many valuable projects was sick for a long time.

This was still devastating news to his friends and loved ones as you can’t prepare for something like this.

Many unfinished projects, the realisation of which was postponed into the future by buddies and fellow performers, are now paused for good.

As a creator, Kęstutis Lušas still had so many significant things to say.

And he would have been speaking for a long time.

Bildukai were the hottest band of Kaunas in 1969 - they were hot in Palanga, too. Meet Vytautas Petrušonis, the singer on the left of the picture, on page 6.

This edition is dedicated to rock and roll – which was referred to as “big beat” in Lithuania at that time – as a period of time, as a way of expression,

a style of life that stretches up until now. And the fact that we had to rearrange the whole issue is nothing compared to what people that miss K. Lušas feel.

There can be only one lesson here: we have to capture history while it’s happening to us. If not when it’s happening live, then right after that, but not too late. A proper conversation, genuine stories, strings of memories, buzzing ideas, musical works that aren’t recorded, thoughtprovoking photographic images – don’t miss your chance.

Rock and roll is forever. Turn the pages and meet Eglutės, Bildukai, Lemmy and Baltic Balkan in the streets of Šančiai, the Station District, Vytautas park and beyond.

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Eglutės, a girl-only big beat band.

We spoke to one of the members, Rūta Skudienė, on page 18

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24 musicians went on to become members of Kertukai band in five years time. / Photo from the archives of Vydmantas Juronis

Not much is known about Verpetas. We only know some of the names in the picture: Chaimas Amduras, Rolandas Glizickas and Vitalijus Luciukas.

Do you know who the woman is? And maybe the contacts of their designer? / Photo from Facebook group Kauno muzikinis judėjimas.

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Kęstutis Ignatavičius is one of the heroes of Kaunas. He once played in Aitvarai band - and sang, too. / Photo from www.bigbeat.lt

Per penkerius metus grupėje „Kertukai“ spėjo pagroti net 24 artistai.

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A black and white photo of guys in their swimming attire with electric guitars knee-deep in the sea could easily come from The Beatles or Rolling Stones yet it belongs to Bildukai, a Žaliakalnis-born band that was active for a very short time, still getting into a movie. We met the first one on the left – Vytautas Petrušonis – partly because we wanted to know the story of this photograph. We love stories.

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He will cross that street again

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Interview by Daina Dubauskaitė Photos by Donatas Stankevičius

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The solo biography of Vytautas is as long as this conversation, so someone should certainly start working on his memoirs. There are plenty of unexplored behind-thescenes stories here that still have that unique smell of the stage.

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Vytautas, you’ve probably sang before Bildukai?

Sure. I have a big family – 29 cousins, 12 uncles and aunts, and everyone sang in every gathering. My father was a true Mario Lanza, while an older cousin Liucija used to teach me folk songs. I probably knew up to 20 pieces when I was only four, always listening to music and at times crying from its beauty. I later saw the film The Great Caruso with the tenor M. Lanza himself – I think TV channels should be showing it

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today too. Without anyone to take me, I watched that movie in a full Daina cinema theatre three or four times.

I began singing in a full, strong voice like Robertino Loreti. Or maybe he sang like me. I performed songs from Naples in school, the audiences used to ask for encores. Once I even sang for college students. Then my voice changed; I was learning to play accordion in a music school.

When I was 16, I came across an ad inviting to sing at the ensemble of Vytautas culture and leisure park.

They welcomed me and so I started performing in the legendary dance pavilion that used to stand where the public library of Kaunas is today.

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This was around 1968, it was my official job and I was making 100 rubles a month, which was huge for a pupil. I took taxis everywhere: my first love Jūratė lived in Vilijampolė, the ride used to cost me 60 kopecks.

Did you have groupies?

When Jūratė used to come to concerts, all the girls saw that I’m spending time with her. If I was alone, many invited me to dance after getting off the stage. However, I was never an adventure seeker.

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All this while you were a schoolkid?

Yes, on Friday and Saturday evenings, with a live band – saxophone, trumpet, guitar… There were no recordings during dances at that time. The evening lasted for a few hours; of course, I didn’t sing the whole time – there were solely instrumental pieces as well. The pavilion was quite large, a few hundred people used to fit under its roof and the place was always full. It was a popular spot as people came to the park from all areas of Kaunas. Therefore, often the dance turned into a fight – one neighbourhood against another and so on. I remember performing and seeing guys tearing off planks of wood from nearby fences, preparing for “battle”.

Did you perform songs that you’ve created as well?

I’ve written a few, the most known was the one I created being 18 years old – “Aš neisiu ta gatve” (“I won’t cross that street”). I never actually recorded it in he studio but I can still sing it.

It was pretty popular – the head of Oktava ensemble Mindaugas Tamošiūnas suggested I register it at the authors’ office, that way it would have made me around 300 rubles richer in a few years. I didn’t do that.

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You were in the band named Bildukai (“bildukas” is a Lithuanian poltergeist-like house spirit that knocks). For their names, ensembles of those days picked Lithuanian words that had a somewhat mystical folk charge – sorcerers, kites, fir trees… Was it a conscious choice?

Of course, all of my friends were patriots and admirers of the Lithuanian folklore. There was another, more down-to-earth reason to this – you couldn’t name your band in English, could you?

Reports followed all of the concerts back then, so people wrote something like “Brazilian folk song” and “unknown author” next to Western songs. This was our way of tricking the people who supervised these events. Obviously, if the supervisors would’ve been more attentive, they would’ve checked whether the bands have a proper number of Russian and Lithuanian songs in the programme.

Perhaps those past names now seem to have been following a tendency since everyone uses English names today. That is, of course, their right to do so.

Did Bildukai ever play in the underground?

We didn’t have any secret concerts – it was mostly dances at the S. Nėris high school. In 1969, Raimondas Vabalas filmed us for his movie “Birželis vasaros pradžia” (“June’s the start of summer”), where we performed the song “Ateisiu, mergužėle, ateisiu” (“I’ll come ‘round, girl, I will”). We spent that summer in Giruliai, playing in the pioneer camp.

Was the legendary photo of all of you holding guitars in the sea made during that summer?

Yes, you’re right. It was a fun summer, we lived there for free and

could jam as much as we wanted.

When USA astronauts landed on The Moon, we were listening to the Amerikos Balsas (America’s Voice) station on the radio. Suddenly our teacher from S. Nėris school – head of the camp – ran into the room and told us that we somehow managed to broadcast the radio programme through the speakers in the entire camp! He knew us well so we didn’t get in trouble, but it’s still a good story.

By the way, it was not only Kaunas that hosted our concerts with the ensemble of Vytautas park for culture and leisure – people waited for us all around Lithuania.

We visited cultural homes and kolkhozes, going back home at dawn. I was going to school without any sleep, but thankfully I managed to get good grades.

I also sang in the big band of the Kaunas radio factory – we’ve toured in Lithuania and Latvia with the girl band Eglutės (“Fir trees”) too, it was the best of times.

How did your career in dances, big bands of radio factories and bands like Bildukai end?

I simply had to prepare for my final exams, that’s how it ended. The mentioned head of Oktava ensemble M. Tamošiūnas invited me to come try to sing for him. Right after my prom night, without getting any sleep, I went to a rehearsal, sang a few songs and got the job. Therefore, I had to balance my time between studying at the faculty of light industry at the Kaunas polytechnic institute and performing with Oktava.

Do you remember what you were doing on May 15th, 1972?

I do. It was the day of my advanced mathematics exam, I was about to finish the second year. I remember

going out to Gediminas street – Laisvės Avenue was packed full of people. I went up to Orbita (now SEB bank), even up to the city garden – I couldn’t get through.

Right after that we had to go to Riga to record songs. We were dragging our suitcases to the railway station and there was a crazy number of militiamen.

Has R. Kalanta’s self-immolation made an impact on you as a musician?

I wouldn’t say so. Oktava was an exemplary orchestra. They used to check our concert programmes too, but we were allowed to play jazz, jazz rock, many foreign pieces. M. Tamošiūnas used to visit his relatives in the USA and bring back fresh records – Chicago, Tower of Power and so forth. We had the freedom to be inspired.

The records of Oktava that survived through the times don’t reflect what we were actually able to play – the live shows were way more interesting, and there were almost no ensembles that could match us in the variety of music and the quality of performance.

Tell us about the tours. What’s the most exotic place Oktava visited?

We went to Finland when I was 18, and that was the first capitalist country I visited. A miracle! Helsinki, Tampere, Turku – walking down the streets felt fantastic. M. Tamošiūnas said that “Finns live like the Americans”.

Their students were amazing: longhaired, jeans-wearing, free, relaxed…

We had prepared a Finnish folk song “A happy shepherd” just for that tour. You should’ve seen how the whole crowd danced to it… Nobody told them to, they wanted to. That impressed us.

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Did you continue singing after studying?

M. Tamošiūnas moved to Vilnius and I couldn’t follow him, so our paths separated. He still invited me to perform at times, once we went to the Far East with Trimitas, an orchestra he was the head of. I sang instead of Viktoras Malinauskas who couldn’t make the trip. Whem studying, I was also performing at Tulpė café with the jazz ensemble of Romualdas Grabštas and many other ensembles and collectives.

When I graduated from the institute, I was assigned to lead one of the factories of Drobė. I worked there for many years: I could’ve sang as I had many calls, but I realised that I just couldn’t make it happen with all the work. Drobė, as a matter of fact, held solid parties with grilled hogs, songs and dancing, yet I mainly focused on the textile sector.

Up until then you lived an intense sleepless life with guitars in the sea and other elements of rock and roll. Did you miss it after becoming the boss?

I certainly did. When live bands used to play in restaurants like Orbita or Baltija, on purpose or not I used to jump on the stage to sing. I knew all the musicians so we didn’t have troubles with quickly choosing what to perform.

It’s much rarer now for bands to play restaurants…

That’s true. The technology changed after gaining the independence back: I started using recorded music as a background and singing live. I now

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have around 500 pieces prepared, and almost all of them are known standards – beautiful quality songs from foreign composers. The pop music of Lithuania didn’t quite reach that level yet.

You’ve been singing for over 50 years now. What is music to you and why is it close to you your whole life?

It excites me: I embrace my soul upon listening to great tunes.

There are more beautiful things in life, however not the materialistic ones. That’s what made me start singing again after many years of managerial work – the spiritual world is just more important to me. Music is the best way to talk to myself.

Should people go to concerts more? Recently, many singers perform at half-empty venues.

It’s because people think that watching a concert on YouTube can replace live music. It just can’t. Don’t focus on just Lithuanian music too, look abroad. You shouldn’t get me wrong, but some regular folks that only listen to Lithuanian performers think that this is all that music can be…

Do you have Lithuanian songs in your repertoire? What about “I won’t cross that street”?

Ha! Yes, I have that one and sing it upon request. I don’t think that piece is something special – I was 18 when I wrote it after all, but it’s great when people remember and appreciate it.

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Don’t travel overseas to meet heroes. Usually we talk to Kaunas residents that moved here from exotic destinations or have spent time at unusual places yet this time it’s Vilnius that hosts our hero. The personality of Marius Kneipferavičius is so steeped in Kaunas’ spirit that it oozes rock and roll to a point when we didn’t even have to ask him anything. The stories just came at us, from his grandfather who showed movies in Šančiai to Baltic Balkan, a music project that Marius is a part of. The interview turned into a love letter, urging us to fall for something that was hiding right under our noses.

Marius Kneipferavičius and Latvia’s top fortune teller Photos by Rasa Kneipferavičienė and from family archives

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that’s becoming the norm today. 40 is definitely the new 30: our parents felt old at this age, whereas people around us only start settling down nowadays when they reach their 40s.

While travelling abroad, we’ve met many older performers and DJs that seemed extremely energetic, and their dynamic work pulse adds to it.

We’re still kids compared to them.

We at Baltic Balkan are by far not experts on the Yiddish language, but we’ve managed to modernise and use a few Litvak songs over the years. We’re preparing a mini album “Litvish”; an artist Asta Ostrovskaja created a video for one of the songs – “Kadril”. The Jewish community shared it online, we’ve presented it on TV and received positive feedback. As DJs we were part of the line-up in Krakow’s Jewish festival and were even blessed by a rabbi in Vilnius. We feel that this creative choice – which might seem odd to some – was the right one.

If we’re coming back to the start, I must say I went through a searching phase as many musicians do, so naming one genre that made a substantial influence on me would be very hard. Music was always around me: my grandparents used to organise family gatherings involving a lot of beautiful singing. My dad was playing in a big beat band with his friend Kęstutis Ignatavičius, member of the band Aitvarai. And when I delved into my family’s history, I learned that many of my relatives were into music. My grandmother’s family that emigrated to Australia after the war were all musicians.

This story, by the way, deserves its own narrative. I found my relatives on Facebook based on two factors – their last name and the fact that they moved to Australia. My second cousins often talk to me online now, and my aunt is even visiting in autumn. Crazy.

I would call Baltic Balkan an adventure: the band was born as a joke, then it transformed into a kind of therapy for me, Lencas and Namas. We all have responsible jobs, so this project is our alter ego: we can act or feel in ways we can’t allow ourselves to in our daily lives. It’s perfect for expression, visiting new places, meeting all the people. We do it sincerely, because it’s the sort of music and energy we love. At an event, we certainly like seeing that we’re not the only ones to be captured by it.

All of us are over forty, yet we’re living the rock and roll life and

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My childhood was spent in the Dainava neighbourhood, but those memories are quite gloomy. It was a true ghetto of the Soviet period, however my friends used to go to the abandoned Pažaislio monastery and climb around the belfries without our parents ever knowing about it.

Baltic Balkan / Photo by Gediminas Bartuška

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My atypical Belgian last name gets people confused, they assume I’m Jewish even though I only have Samogitian and Sudovian blood.

Maybe the linguistic remarks pushed me to take interest in Lithuania’s Jewish heritage. It’s a hot topic now and I’m happy about it, considering we lost a piece of our own history and identity during the Holocaust.

Music charmed me with its alternative genres and the more peculiar sounds very early on.

Visiting festivals like “Breikas ‘86” in Kaunas or “Papūga” in Palanga was a blast. My mother also used to take me to concerts and cafés, so I remember the music situation quite well.

In 1986, when I was eleven, an audio cassette of Beastie Boys – “Licensed to Ill” – was sent to my classmate by his relatives in the USA. He wanted to get rid of it as he thought it was nonsense; that’s how I was introduced to hip hop. I got records

by Run DMC and Schoolly D at the shop on the corner of Maironio street and Laisvės Avenue: they were defective – that’s probably why

they ended up here. Later came the Super Channel and similar things.

A nearby technical store “Tauras” allowed me to rewrite cassettes there, that’s how I educated myself when there was no Internet. My neighbour used to overwrite cassettes as well, and Arka Glody – who was filming breakdancing events and the band Kardiofonas – was living in the same house too. Another joint to buy records at was the basement in front of Officers’ Club, so was “Merkurijus”.

Upon maturing, my hanging out spots in Kaunas were quite clear – “Pegasas”, “Laumė”, “Kulinarija”, the yard of the Kaunas artists’ house and so on. I can’t wait to walk through V. Putvinskio street using the “GilusKaunas” app – I feel a

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was serving in the military as a minesweeper, spending time in the barracks of Šančiai, working as a cinema mechanic at the Lyra (later Taika) cinema, showing movies to people during the Interwar period and the war.

Turning thirty resulted in getting a job in Vilnius. I was working at a small design studio in Kaunas at the time, so moving to an international ad agency in the capital was a big challenge.

That book also told me that my grandparents – Stasys Kneipferavičius and Viktorija Dobrovolskytė – got married inside the Šančiai church on its opening day! I realised it after studying the wedding metrics and facts mentioned in the book. By the way, that church with a truly impressive interior was built in 1938 thanks to priest Mamertas Lumbė and it’s one of the most special ones in Lithuania.

Rebellious teenage years led me to heavier genres like indie, industrial, punk, gothic. The circle of friends has also changed, including new buddies that played music, so we started rehearsing in a flat, inspired by The Cure and Joy Division. Our first band was called Musėgaudis (“Fly catcher” in Lithuanian), later came projects like Dulkės (“Dust”), Sperm Eaters (one video was even selected by Ugnius Liogė for his TV show), Latvia’s Top Fortune Teller. Then we formed

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the band Dirigentai (“Conductors”) and played at alternative festivals around the country, even getting the award of “the most ideological band” in 1996. A popular TV show “Tangomanija” featured us, while Nykštukas, a leading voice of the alternative music scene, said we’ll have a bright future. Of course, we ran out of youthful enthusiasm pretty soon.

The alternative music world was quite intense in Kaunas: everyone knew everyone, and members of every genre used to go to each other’s events. I was there when the first RyRalio and Pakalnė events started happening – such electronic music

The dad of Marius Kneipferavičius performing with the future band Aitvarai

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I live in Vilnius for 12 years now, but I never compare the two cities. Going back to Kaunas makes me rediscover it every time. Maybe you think you know each corner of the town yet there are always new stories, legends, tales to hear, whether they’re public or personal.

special connection to this place, being born in P. Mažylis maternity hospital. I’ve also enjoyed “The spiritual guide to old Kaunas” by the same people.

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shows were very important. I was taking care of the visuals for a group called DJ Žvėriukai, also passing leaflets and logos around. Later, I worked as a designer with such pioneers and organisers like Ore, Atari, Kitoki.

After my father’s funeral, one of the elder relatives gave me my grandparents’ suitcase full of photos. Around 200 shots of the city during the Interwar years and after were inside, leaving me curious to find out what each one of them is really about. I started examining the archives, visiting libraries, forums… I do it now too. Genealogy is an addictive hobby. Maybe it’s linked with getting older?

I discovered that my grandparents and great-grandparents lived in Šančiai – a unique industrial neighbourhood – for a long time.

Actually, I’ve lived there for a bit too and had no idea how much there is to see. The book on Šančiai

by Jurgis Vanagas gave me a lot of new information: apparently my grandfather Stasys Kneipferavičius

My connection to the author of the book J. Vanagas deserves a mention too. I remembered my aunt telling me our relatives in Gudžiūnai had bird-like names (“vanagas” means “hawk”). So it’s possible that J. Vanagas, born in Kaunas and a resident of Šančiai, was a distant relative of mine – my greatgrandmother Morta VanagaitėKneiferavičienė was from Gudžiūnai too, and she’s buried in Šančiai cemetery. I found her grave recently, along with the house that my ancestors Augustinas and Morta lived in, which interestingly was a prison for soldiers during the Tsar times. Šančiai is a mysterious neighbourhood with many stories, undiscovered to the fullest by Kaunas residents and visitors alike. However, will the industrial heritage be preserved here as it seems not many individuals care about it?

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“You live on a hilltop with water cradling your face”, a song about Kaunas goes; it was recorded almost half a century ago by one – not the only one but probably the most known – big beat girl band Eglutės (“fir trees” in Lithuanian).

“Independence opened a lot of possibilities for me” Interview by Daina Dubauskaitė Photos by Teodoras Biliūnas

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There were five of these fir trees in Kaunas so we sat down for tea with the youngest one – Rūta ŽalnieriūtėSkudienė, who was last to join the band. A year ago, the work of this musicologist came in handy to us when preparing an article on jazz, and since then we knew that we’ll have many questions for Rūta if we ever meet. Having your own record label is an interesting lifestyle, but that’s in the second part of the talk, now let’s get back to the trees.

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A girl rock band behind the Iron Curtain. Mind-blowing!

It was. Although Eglutės and other bands of the 1960s didn’t really play Western rock, these were rock interpretations depending on the circumstances.

Western music reached us through radio stations of Warsaw and Luxembourg, so we weren’t completely isolated.

I joined Eglutės as a pupil of J. Naujalis music school where I played the piano. My parents always encouraged me to study music and my mother worked there. However, a new sort of sound interested me, it was different from what I could come across at school. I wanted to experiment so I started teaching myself to play guitar, which was made in the Soviet Union and had to be modified with modest domestic tools. Step by step, I was learning. Prior to Eglutės, we’ve created an untitled girl band and unsuccessfully played our own songs for a short while.

The other fir trees – Rasa Matukonytė, Rita Gembickaitė, Jūratė Paukštytė and Violeta Romanovaitė were a bit older pupils, more experienced. Upon noticing that I played the guitar, they invited me to join them. This resulted in our band having a similar

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structure to The Beatles: three guitars, drums, keys.

We were offered to join the Algis Venckūnas-led big band of Kaunas radio factory. Small ensembles like Gintarėliai used to join larger orchestras like Oktava yet still performed as a separate band at times. That’s what happened to Eglutės after joining the big band.

Proper Czech- and German-made instruments were given to us along with new stage clothes; we were playing Polish pieces, some Western works, our own songs.

You mentioned the radio as an influence, but what about the records?

My own hobbies and musical taste were influenced by spending time with older hippies of Kaunas.

Kristupas Petkūnas had a particularly diverse collection of records, he used to organise music evenings at his place in Old Town. I was introduced to him by my classmate Algirdas, a violinist who’s also the father of Linas Adomaitis. I remember being captivated by the music Kristupas showed us: these were serious evenings with him telling us all about how musicians perform, explaining the mechanics of various instruments.

Kristupas had the gift of public speaking and knew a lot about music.

I would now refer to this as school for different music. He never told us how he got all those records, but he always let us “copy” the albums to our cassettes. I had a cassette player Aidas at home which I bought by saving money, so I cherished the records and studied them all. It was what most of us were doing back then, even though now it seems like a complicated start of a musician’s path.

What bands did you like at that time?

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Cream, also some Polish artists like NiebieskoCzarni, Czerwono-Czarni, Czerwone Gitary, some of which played at Kaunas Sports Hall. Such movements were more intense in Poland as their people were much more independent in every sense Didn’t initiatives like playing in a band interfere with the duties of a Soviet pupil?

We didn’t organise the events ourselves, we just performed following the programmes of the big band we joined. We had a lot of fun trips to Latvia where we played with Menuets, Riga’s radio factory band that’s still performing today.

Eglutės played during Khrushchev times, the so-called “warmer” period.

Rock music didn’t officially exist, but big beat and vocal-instrumental ensembles did. The government was too weak to ban all of it, therefore no one really cared about after-school activities. Yet we were somewhat doomed at school – the academic community hated such musical initiatives. This was apparently bad for good girls with uniforms, so we used to get reprimanded.

Was this negative attitude purely academic, or maybe ideological after all?

It was a mixture of things. Some female teachers, to put in today’s terms, used psychological violence, but it was just denial and hatred based on nothing. I was lucky that my mother worked in the same school, she was tolerant and allowed me to pursue my passion.

Did she like Eglutės?

I’m not sure. I can now state that she was truly a liberal, letting us do what was basically prohibited. This had a risky side as well: allowing your sixteen-year-old daughter to go tour was in a way a gamble. But she did trust me and nothing bad ever happened. I think she suffered at work for this too.

You didn’t do anything illegal, did you? All of those events were official and approved, right?

That’s right. Some musicians played in the underground, but all concerts of Eglutės were official as we were part of the radio factory’s big band.

However, there was enough stress at school: one time we planned to go to Gintarinė Triūba, an international competition – we wanted the school not to know about this. Of course, everyone found out. We weren’t expelled just because we were decent pupils and the headmaster who approached this in a humane way didn’t really have a good reason to throw us out.

Almost no records from the 1960s survived, and if it wasn’t for Rokas Radzevičius releasing a compilation of Lithuanian rock classics, we would have nothing. Why? Getting a chance to record songs wasn’t easy, especially for those who played in various suspicious gatherings and protested against something even between the lines. We were lucky to record a few tunes at the television studio; we visited it again before our concert with Menuets in Riga.

It’s a miracle that those recordings survived. Apparently, the songs by Eglutės were saved by Eugenijus Gylys, a drummer from the radio factory orchestra who was assigned to look

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after our band. When the mentioned Rokas Radzevičius was writing his thesis-book, he approached me, I contacted E. Gylys and the latter found the records. We digitalised everything and made the sound quality better. I still have the original record.

Girl rock bands still get additional attention today because of the fact that they’re girls. How was Eglutės doing in that sense?

Well, we’ve heard various comments, but we were actually proper musicians with classical education and the records that survived prove that.

How did you create your image as a musician while being a teenager?

Naturally. There was no chance of getting jeans. My mother used to get the Kobieta į Zycie magazine with instructional shapes for clothes inside, so she stitched up a pair of wider leg pants for me. Everyone used to stare at this long-haired, guitar-carrying creature with wideleg pants.

Kaunas was a fun and interesting place with an active cultural life. The pantomime theatre group of Modris Tenisons was a great influence on the youth. We used to crave reading Nemunas magazine that spread liberal ideas with its photos and excerpts of literary pieces.

Did you write lyrics for the songs?

A few songs by Eglutės were in fact written by me, and there’s even a recording of one. I recently found an article in Literatūra ir Menas that analysed lyrics of those days, and one of the examples was a song I wrote!

It was quite odd, was it really me who wrote it? We were spontaneous and didn’t think about any hidden meanings back then. When the band

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split up, I didn’t want to remember it all for many years.

Why? When did Eglutės split up?

In 1972, after the self-immolation of Romas Kalanta, everything stopped naturally, but we finished our journey before that. The older members graduated and moved to study at the conservatory in Vilnius. I stayed in school yet was quite traumatised after all the reprimands: I didn’t understand how it was my fault, I felt pressure and was alone. I had to finish school and the last year was very difficult.

I didn’t play anymore but teachers still saw me as a bad pupil. It hurts to remember that up until now.

We never got any money for our concerts – it was a voluntary activity, legal, without any prospects. You couldn’t be a free artist; you had to choose whether to keep studying or to play… It was a natural transition for us.

Tell us more about May 1972.

The tragedy of R. Kalanta sparked an angry, rebellious mood. We didn’t want to give in to the system, we just wanted to be free and were probably too young to understand everything that was happening.

After that event, my classmates and I – we had a small group of myself, composer Vidmantas Bartulis and another buddy – picked some flowers from the garden and went to stand next to Kalanta’s house, crossed the bridge to the special investigations building, then walked to the drama theatre. The crowds were huge.

Suddenly everyone was surrounded, the militia started arresting people and they got V. Bartulis, who didn’t come to school for the next few days.

Later he showed us his back that was full of bruises – he was interrogated

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and beaten, shown pictures of him and his friends, including myself.

My mother was angry with me when I got back from the demonstration.

We knew what could happen since a few family members were exiled.

She didn’t let me out for the rest of the day: we lived in Žaliakalnis and I could hear noise coming from downhill. After that it was all silent.

No movements, groups or initiatives.

Individuals were being pursued and persecuted, they were afraid.

I’m surprised people aren’t happy about the way things are today.

If it wasn’t for the independence movement, none of us could work on our ideas, including projects like the one focusing on the Interwar music of Kaunas – talking about this was forbidden, these were all “relicts of a rotten Lithuania”.

Propaganda never got the best of me and I can thank my mother for that; she was a keen critic of the Soviet regime and kept her integrity as a teacher. I knew her truth is the truth. I could never understand people joining political parties or getting promoted for foul reasons…

Conformism is one of the worst things about humans.

Even after suffering in school because of your hobbies, you always stayed close to music, right?

Absolutely. I graduated, made a short pause and started studying musicology, becoming a music historian… ...and getting a job at the record studio in Vilnius.

Correct. This was in 1978. I worked there right until it closed down after the studio couldn’t keep up with the free market after Lithuania became independent again.

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I was the editor. It was a more technical job, taking part in recordings and later initiating them.

I gathered the metrics, sometimes taking care of the order of albums.

It was hard at first because I was educated as a music historian, not a technician. No one was there to teach me, it all came to me through practise.

The record programmes were created by the studio and the ministry of culture had to approve them, with particular institutions of Moscow approving them after that and only then a recording time could be assigned. Usually it was a very long process, the finished albums showed up in a few years’ time.

I worked with many musicians so I knew the field quite well. At the end of the 1980s I initiated the recordings of Birštonas jazz festival.

I was always suggesting bands and performers for the studio – Petras Vyšniauskas, Gintaras Abarius, Kęstutis Lušas and some rock bands like Antis, the latter I discovered after going to a concert in Vilnius that I really didn’t want to go to. The team at the studio was a good and creative one.

The search for new talents, of course, wasn’t my job there – it was another hobby. I was happy to be able to help the musicians as it was very complicated to get the chance to record your songs.

You’ve established your own record label Semplice. What motivated you?

When Melodija was closed, the Vilnius record studio faced troubled times. We didn’t get salaries for months, then years, finally I told myself that I can’t go on like this.

After visiting Paris in 1995, the year of M. K. Čiurlionis, I initiated the project “Hommage À Čiurlionis” with the mentioned Vidmantas Bartulis and Petras Vyšniauskas. The project was well received and fuelled further discussions. It was hard to develop it and find sponsors while still being part of the record studio, I knew doing it myself would be easier. So I registered the company and my second project was again about Čiurlionis.

How many recordings do you have in the Semplice catalogue?

Not many. I look for exceptional things and I do it all myself so the processes take a long time. The fact that I can do it from A to Z actually inspires me.

One of my last works, the 23rd recording, is the 17th century music of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

This was quite an expensive idea: I had an ensemble Canto Fiorito coming from abroad, recording in the Palace of Grand Dukes using old instruments. I consulted fellow musicologists that specialise in the old music. The album features many things that are new to Lithuania; it was a number of discoveries for me as well.

Do any particular time periods interest you more than others?

I simply love ideas that capture me and then motivate others to join the project. In music, I like things that are linked to Lithuania, like Čiurlionis for example. Later came two jazz compilations, this was in 2001: there were no reliable Internet sources, so I’ve spent a lot of time in libraries, studying radio archives and looking for hints, talking with people. I wanted to tell the story from the beginning, so collectors

helped me too. After that I thought that it’d be interesting to revive the older music and I realised that I need context – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which we didn’t really talk about during the Soviet years.

My colleagues agreed to consult me again.

What’s your relationship with modern music?

Good.

Modern authors are cosmopolites with a new set of opportunities. Capturing that is not always that simple.

One of my projects – “Voicescapes” – was based on interpreting M. K. Čiurlionis in a free manner. Arturas Bumšteinas and Liudas Mockūnas performed at the opening night of Vilnius Jazz in the church of St Catherine. Later A. Bumšteinas prepared a recording that BBC3 radio show Late Junction played.

Do you still listen to music during your free time?

Sure I do. I’m a free person now, a pensioner. I have time and many records at home in various formats.

I like jazz when I’m working – it mobilises me, especially whilst writing or editing. I remember mantras helping me when I had to write a very complex text. I drove everyone around me mad!

I have a guitar too, maybe I’ll play it one day. My husband is also a musician – he works as a flutist in Trimitas orchestra and teaches kids, so we have many common interests.

Overall, I believe in doing what you are interested in. I can’t understand people who have a job they hate, even if it’s for money. What’s money good for, really? It’s much more important to feel at peace with yourself.

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Interviewing metal

By Julija Račiūnaitė Photos by Teodoras Biliūnas

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Lemmy, the music club that opened over a year ago, is known to the public as home for alternative music in Kaunas. Five people administrate and lovingly take care of it, and two of them – Darius Laurinavičius and Rosvaldas Serapinas – told us the club’s story.

Let’s go back to the origins of Lemmy – what was your first encounter with heavy metal?

D. L. Rosvaldas and I come from the same town of Vilkija, we’re not genuine “Kaunasians”. Small places have very few people who like unpopular music and sooner or later those folks meet.

R. S. This was probably 1992 or 1993 – the dreary 1990s!

D. L. I wasn’t really into any music for a long time – it wasn’t important to me. My neighbour gave me a cassette of Motorhead and Whitesnake when I was 13, this was a surprising breaking point.

The heavy music of guitars still captivates me, probably influencing my whole life’s path since 1989.

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Was it this neighbour [looking at Rosvaldas]?

D. L. No! I remember everyone catching the flu of heavy metal in 1988. My older sister used to say that “this will come and go, and you will move on too”. That neighbour healed from the flu, I never did.

The neighbour’s mission was complete?

D. L. Yes, he gave me the cassette and that was that.

Rosvaldas, what nudged you to choose heavier music?

R. S. It was probably another neighbour! Actually, I only started listening to it later – I was a keen fan of Depeche Mode and Foje before.

Then came Sepultura, trash and death metal. On the other hand, we

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don’t focus just on metal today, we like various tunes.

R. S. We chose “the help from the audience”, so to say.

As for the name of the club, did any of you use to go to school dressed in Motorhead T-shirts (the leader of Motorhead was Lemmy Kilmister)?

D. L. We’ll get to the name later. I knew about Motorhead in school but they weren’t my favourite, I preferred Sepultura or Metallica. And I didn’t have T-shirts of Motorhead back then!

D. L. We were curious to hear what people want, and one of the suggestions was “Lemmy”.

So what did you T-shirts say?

R. S. When we were in school, the dress code was strict – we had uniforms. It was only after classes that you could showcase T-shirts like that to friends, and it was a problem buying them, especially original ones.

What about white-printing the fabric?

D. L. Ah, you’re talking about improvisations. Making stencils, fittings, drawings – it was all fun, but after school though.

Did the long hair cause any problems?

D. L. I grew my hair long only after graduating. I obviously had problems because of it, but it was due to the times we lived in. Today, when people travel around the globe, meeting a guy with long hair is just as common as going to Maxima.

Back then, you only had to put a chain anywhere else other than your neck and that was enough for people to look at your weird. It was the public pressure that actually motivated us to rebel from within, and the music helped.

So comment on the club’s name.

D. L. The story goes that we had a lot of options ourselves but we decided to take it to Facebook.

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R. S. Lemmy Kilmister had just died.

D. L. Coincidence – the day we met to finalise the name was the actual day his funeral took place. This was just another reason to pay our respect to him this way.

Now you can celebrate the club’s birthday and remember his death anniversary on the same day.

R. S. Yes. Also, we liked that the word “Lemmy” can be independent out of the Motorhead context. It’s simple, clear and easy to recall.

D. L. Certainly, we highly respect L. Kilmister but we didn’t want to turn the club into a memorial place.

Lemmy’s interior isn’t Motorhead-styled with the band’s CDs lying around and so on. It’s not a mausoleum!

R. S. Yes, the dedication to L. Kilmister is just an accent. We had a Motorhead-themed club birthday though, with the band Murder One and underground musicians creating a Motorhead cover project for our special occasion.

Can I ask whose leather jacket is framed on the bar’s wall?

D. L. It belonged to Martynas Meškauskas, who drowned in a Michigan lake ten years ago. He was an artist from Kaunas, founder and ideological leader of the known Lithuanian underground band Anubi.

R. S. Martynas’ parents gave the jacket to his close friends, and it was brought here from Vilnius. Upon receiving this gift, we also received a duty to honour this person.

D. L. This gift is linked to our core values and our work, especially having in mind that the performer is from Kaunas.

Apart from the jacket, do you have any other talismans or sentimental objects?

R. S. Firstly, we felt a vacuum in Kaunas – there was no place for bands playing heavier music to perform.

D. L. It was a long process, including the days of Underground Pub. Concerts were regular, but, with all due respect to that place, it wasn’t the best spot to bring performers to.

Eventually it closed down and there was a lack of a club in Kaunas that was home to rock and roll. What happened was what usually happens – someone else takes the flag and carries it. Both of us were in this business for a long time, playing, organising events and festivals Nekro Disko, Tamsa Šnabžda, etc.

R. S. Yes, we’re musicians from the days back in Vilkija, when we tried to play heavy metal in the school’s hall, with third- and fourth-graders listening to us. Teachers were there as well; they were critical yet allowed us to express ourselves. Later I played in several bands, Darius still does. We felt the need for a spot like this ourselves – it’s the second biggest city in Lithuania and there’s no club to play at?

become a creative space that the city desperately needed.

D. L. Kaunas deserves to be a Western city with cultural variety, therefore a place for suitable representation of alternative music should always be taken seriously.

What do you do in your free time when you’re not working at the club?

D. L. We have day jobs, we play, Rosvaldas does graphic design.

Family is also important.

R. S. There are five of us because one or two people would have a hard time managing it all, from technical work to organisational affairs and dealing with customers. We sacrifice most of our weekends to this club, but we’re just regular folks during daytime.

D. L. Correct. We would’ve had to quit our jobs if there weren’t five of us. We are quite demanding, and the goals for higher quality require more work hours.

R. S. That’s why we appreciate the work our volunteers do very much.

D. L. We though why don’t we – music lovers and organisers – create such a space? We wanted to have work that was not just for the money.

Your Facebook page says Lemmy is a music club, a space for the alternative arts. What do you mean by that?

R. S. If someone would approach us with a good idea for a performance, an exhibition, dance lessons or any other presentation of art, we’d say yes and we’d help as much as we can.

R. S. Right, we didn’t have an investor that threw some money at us and told us his requirements. It was all us, our ideas and our savings, which we used on renovation and other necessary processes. The goal of the club wasn’t to make money. It was to

I must ask then – who would get a red light if they wanted to perform at the club?

R. S. Simply speaking, we give a green light to all creators. Cover artists, wedding musicians and similar folks are the ones that would hear a “no”.

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D. L. It’s unlikely that we’d get calls like that, but I would think we’d refuse offers from the sad wannabe legends from TV. This club is for those who give themselves to music, not those who are only looking to take from it.

Lemmy celebrated its first birthday this February. What are you mostly proud of?

R. S. We celebrated the actual year we had – it showed us that our ideas can be brought to reality. We had around 150 events throughout the year, often more than one band performed during an evening.

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D. L. I agree with Rosvaldas that our biggest achievement is this first year itself. We made a few mistakes along the way and had to learn everything from the start, for instance, while doing constructional work. Another big win was keeping the five of us respecting each other. This was educational in the way we managed to avoid conflicts.

R. S. Also, the feedback is truly positive, from the social channels to musicians and guests talking to us after shows. A year went by and Lemmy is a known club, bands find us themselves.

D. L. We get offers not only from underground musicians but also from serious agencies that have us in their list as reliable partners able to host high-calibre performers.

Sometimes I stop to notice that this small club welcomes bands that are destined to play big arenas next. For example, musicians working with labels like Nuclear Blast or Napalm Records started their careers here: Cobra and the Lotus, Evil Invaders, Conan. Carnifex, a well-known American heavy metal band is coming at the end of the year.

talent-packed evening that was well received by the audience. If we find more performers like that, we’ll definitely continue this project, at least once a month. Maybe Kaunas is still hiding undiscovered promising musicians in basements.

R. S. Many musicians that play with the likes of Kiss and AC DC have stopped by, they perform all around the world and yet they know this place. I’m happy that they appreciate our professionalism; this kind of trust is of crucial importance to us.

Bands recommend us to each other as a reliable venue. Kaunas actually never had alternative concerts of such a high level before – even people from Vilnius are surprised how often they have to come here.

We’re not competing with anyone but it’s always a motivational push when you’re doing well. As for the spectators, they saw that Lemmy is a vibrant place with a longterm vision and quality control.

We have to keep working for our programme to be fresh, diverse and attractive each month. For instance, the upcoming weekend will be quite different as it’s dedicated to electronic, industrial genres.

What role does the geography play? Meaning the Stumbras distillery as a concrete location and Kaunas in a wider sense.

It’s all in perfect balance: we have a vodka distillery, a bus station and a railway station. No private apartments nearby, so we can make as much noise as we like. Kaunas is a pretty compact city and coming to the club on foot is relatively easy.

We’re planning to finish the terrace

by May and it will be even more fun.

You’re the organisers of “Jaunas kraujas” (“Young blood”) project that promotes starting-out bands.

Tell us more about these events.

R. S. We wanted to know whether there was a need for such an initiative in the first place. There was: a few bands created a great,

D. L. Also, people can come from basements all over the country.

What’s important here is that the alternative music scene would flourish no matter where the bands come from. But why not help our talents grow in Kaunas too?

Is Kaunas in tune with rock and roll?

D. L. Why wouldn’t it be? There was always rock and roll here, and we work to keep it that way. If this wasn’t a city for that, we wouldn’t have survived.

Future plans?

D. L. You can never know, maybe we’ll become the Baltic version of Underworld (famous alternative club in London), which is a small place too yet a very prestigious one among bands. On a more serious note, we hope that we won’t run out of drive, that some inevitable events won’t harm the club and that Lemmy will remain a much needed club five years from now.

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Whilst thoughts on the new souvenirs of Kaunas are still floating in the air, our focus is to capture the valuable and relevant items that are being created here every month. The coordinates are here to make you go for it instead of just admiring it.

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1. Plato’s “Alcibiadies” and “Charmides”, publisher Jonas ir Jokūbas

A new philosophy publisher with its roots and brains in Kaunas cares for how the age-old wisdom looks today. By the way, the dialogues of Plato were published in two languages – Lithuanian and Ancient Greek. An important detail that is. “Less depression, more philosophy”, these publishers note.

4. Album „Plunged“

The end of March saw the fifth zine from Kitokia Grafika – a comic initiative – presented in Kaunas artists’ house. The topic? Easy. It’s about Kaunas. The first guest of the comic residency programme Benjamin Courtault suggested this topic as Interwar modernism had a vast impact on his artistic work.

Only one of the three musicians that recorded the album is actually from Kaunas - that’s Arnas Mikalkėnas. He toured Estonia and Lithuania with Liudas Mockūnas and Håkon Berre - one of the shows happened to be in Kaunas and the aura of Kaunas artist’s house amazingly fitted the music. A great jazz record not to be missed.

€5 www.kitokiagrafika.lt

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€8-9 www.jonasirjokubas.lt

2. Comics zine “SW / ON 5”

3. Kaunas Photo 2016 catalogue €16 www.kaunasphoto.com

The strongest photography festival in the Baltics is forever linked to Kaunas in its international reach and its engagement with unusual spaces. The topic for 2017 is water, and we’re mighty curious how the participants will interpret it. While we wait, let’s go through this two-part photo catalogue with pages you should turn in the opposite direction.

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€10 www.barefoot-records.com

5. “Sumauta pavara” poster

6. “Šelteris”

“Sumauta pavara” (“That darn gear”) is a blog for classic car enthusiasts. Paulius Gaurilčikas, one of the authors who also draws, is enchanted by Interwar architecture. Thus he tried to imagine what kind of futuristic cars could roam the streets of Kaunas in 1930s.

“Isn’t this supposed to be about new things?”, you might question this feature.

It is. Climb a few steps towards Tautos Namai and you’ll see a fresh space for performance arts called “Šelteris” there.

The centre which was named “The house of labour” in 1940 keeps on welcoming more and more curious people every day and has some engrossing stories to tell.

€15 www.facebook.com/sumautapavara

79 Vytauto avenue, www.tautosnamai.lt

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Brews, galoshes and plush: the old industry

By Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis

Maistas factory in Julijanava. Photo from the 30s.

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The biggest changes in city development history only took place 250 years ago: age-dominant church towers were challenged by new verticals – factory chimneys of all shapes and sizes, while the cities grew in unseen speeds. Ships with sails were replaced by noisy steamers, railroads stretched between towns, factory halls outgrew cathedrals. The Western world opened its doors to the industrial revolution and, a bit late to the party, the European parts of Russian empire started showing signs of progress as well in the 1850s.

Before the prime symbol of this revolution – the train – even rolled into the city, Kaunas already had industrial hints. Three breweries left a decent mark on the face of the city we know today: Wolf, Engelmann and Blumenthal are still operating in their original locations. One of Kaunas’ most engrossing and oldest buildings that was able to preserve a part of its initial function is the Wolf brewery in Vilijampolė, still used to make malt today. Blumenthal (now Kauno Alus) came around at a similar time, interestingly keeping its 19th century look even after the reconstructions during Soviet times. The historic Engelmann (now Volfas Engelman) brewery has left many architectural traces: the company was among the pioneers that boosted Kaunas’ first industrial neighbourhood in an area then called Karmelitai.

The empire’s second line of railroads (St Petersburg – Warsaw) started a new phase of city development – Kaunas

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had heavy industry companies establishing here during the coming decades. Huge metalworking factories of Minerva and Tillman brothers settled in Karmelitai, while many firms occupied areas East from the city, creating a chaotic suburb of their employees – Šančiai. Sadly, there aren’t many architectural examples left from the Tsar’s period in both Šančiai or Karmelitai, that’s due to World War I and the changing specifics of the whole industry back then – growing companies used to demolish old buildings. We can witness the historicism of those days in the aged railroad workshops and some fragments of factories.

Following the independence announcement, Lithuania was developing as an agricultural state, however the temporary capital had a wide and successful range of growing industrial companies. Most players of the heavy industry came back to life after the war, also Kaunas welcomed many food processing and textile

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Such suburbs weren’t the only ones to shape the city during the Interwar period: the end of 1930s and the beginning of 1940s saw Petrašiūnai getting a power plant and a paper factory, turning a small village into one of the liveliest towns in the outskirts. Palemonas was growing because it was home to workers from the Vailokaičiai brick factory that basically “built” Kaunas, whereas the suburb of Veršvai was

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being surrounded by residential blocks after Inkaras – a galoshes factory – settled here.

As for the light industry, Liteksas and Kauno Audiniai were among the grandees occupying the former area of the Tillman brothers and shaping a separate block of such businesses, which is where the Akropolis venues are today. In Šančiai, the Vailokaičiai brothers took over the Schmidt metalworking factory and it became the largest industrial company in Kaunas; Drobė baize factory was also established here along with many smaller firms.

During the 1940s, a significant point for the city’s urban planning was the choice by the municipality to designate four specific areas for

The Petrašiūnai energy plant that’s warming up the houses of Kaunas today

factories. New convenient means of all sorts of transport resulted in the creation of Pienocentro central dairy complex and its production buildings in Karmelitai. A stronghold-styled elevator popped out on the other side of the river, whilst a fresh suburb was forming around the Maisto factory in Julijanavos village.

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industrial businesses. Vilijampolė was already known for its light industry, but it was the windy geographic of this neighbourhood that nudged chemical firms to expand here. The mentioned choice was influenced not only by aims to completely change the city’s planning but rather by the utilitarian needs of Kaunas: the situation of fire protection and hygiene was pretty bad due to small or larger industrial companies operating so close to residential areas. The densest location in the latter sense was Daukšos street, where many architectural structures had little textile firms inside.

Even though problems of moving the companies were taken into account, changing the location of some particular businesses was a top priority, like getting sawmills and wood warehouses (possible fire hazards and “harming the city’s image”) out of the port neighbourhood, which at the time was between Kęstučio street and the current Karaliaus Mindaugo avenue.

This urban restructuring was stopped by the Soviet occupation; for example, the Sragavičius furniture factory – which was in the middle of a homestead neighbourhood on the corner of Aušros street and current Lietuvių street – was due to officially close down in 1940, however the nationalised factory survived through the Soviet period up to our times, thankfully converted into a residential complex now.

It’s worth mentioning that most companies established during occupation years were following previous industrial directions: one of the grand industrial objects of early Soviet times – a plush and silk factory – started its life as a branch of the previously mentioned Kauno

Audiniai, while the Bitukas factory that made signature Soviet silicate bricks was already here during the Interwar period, producing white bricks under the same name. Apart from the brand new Pramonės neighbourhood, most industrial firms picked the old locations.

Often buildings with a different former function were adapted to fit industrial needs – Dobilas coatsewing factory took the place of the freshly built yeshiva in Vilijampolė.

The post-industrial era, much like the industrial revolution itself, was late to reach Kaunas – it only got here when we gained our independence back again. That might be because the opinion about industrial spaces was tangled in old stereotypes, seeing those buildings as anaesthetic and hard to give new functions to. That’s probably why the old factories, warehouses and workshops are still not properly used for tourism. At the turn of the century, the take on these matters didn’t change that much, and many interesting industrial complexes of the city were destroyed, with arguably the most important one being the Parama bakery in Daukantas street, a true symbol of Kaunas’ modernism.

Today we find ourselves at the second stage of perceiving architectural heritage, having a few great examples of converting such spaces – Akropolis, Europa Royale, King Mindaugas Apartments. We’re still slow to make the next step of not only exploiting the heritagelisted industrial places but also welcoming the old buildings as opportunities to create exceptional city spaces by integrating such elements as the factory chimneys of those days, industrial cranes and unusable railroad tracks.

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Calendar 04 06 – 05 08

Exhibition: “Kaunas Central Post Office Has Turned 85“ Kaunas central post office, Laisvės al.

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The exhibition installed by the Kaunas city museum presents us the reasons of designing the post office and the most important events in the history of the building.

Exhibition: Homer Sykes “Egland 1970-1980” Kaunas Gallery, Vilniaus g. 2

Opening of the 6th International Chamber Music Festival AVANTI Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės g. 12

One of the aims of this international festival is the growth of non traditional chamber ensembles, allowing the public to listen to professional music as well as promoting musicians‘ search for new ways of expression. .

Reading Night: Rimantas Marčėnas

Maironis Lithuanian Litereature Museum, Rotušės a. 13 Rimantas Marčėnas, celebrating his 80th birthday, will be accompanied

by Vidmantas Kiaušas-Elmiškis, Irna Labokė, Darius Kudirka and head of the museum Aldona Ruseckaitė..

04 07 – 04 30

Painting exhibition: Gabrielės Šermukšnytė “Haunted“ Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės g. 12

April Friday, 04 07, 18:00

Concert: “Orchestra and Young Talents On Stage“ Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės g. 12

The forever young symphonic orchestra of Lithuanian music and theatre academy will perform the music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Maria von Weber, Giovanni Bottesini, Camille SaintSaëns and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Thursday, 04 06, 21:00

Friday, 04 07, 23:00

„Forum Cinemas“, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49

Bar “Lizdas“ Nepriklausomybės a. 12

Party: “Five Years of Dawns: Makam (NL)”

“Kino pavasaris“: “Manifesto“

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04 06 – 05 07

Thursday, 04 06, 18:00

Friday, 04 07, 17:00

Homer Sykes is magazine and documentary photographer based in London England, these photographs were first shown at the Maison de le Photographie Robert Doisneau in Paris in 2014. They are his selection from a body of work on aspects of British Society.

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The architect of this unique film idea is director Julian Rosefeldt, a veteran of intricate films and installations. In Manifesto, he uses the words from various twentieth century manifestos of artists, architects, and filmmakers for dialogue.

Gabrielė Šermukšnytė (b. 1990) is a youngest generation figurative painter with a recognizable style. The artist explores the wrong sides of the pop culture, ironically criticizes decadence of contemporary society and shows its merciless reflection.

The Dutch DJ Makam likes to start the night with deep house and then push the tempo higher.

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Calendar 04 07 – 04 09

InfoShow’17 Hardware Jam Are you fascinated with the newest and the most remarkable gadgets and gizmos? If so, we invite you to an event Hardware Jam that lasts a whole weekend during which you will be given an opportunity to turn your idea into reality using all sorts of electronic parts and gadgets. It is a perfect opportunity to test your skill of working in a team as well as your imagination, and is guaranteed to broaden your knowledge.

Concert: “Tarp][Kauno] [Sienų” Club “Lemmy”, Girstupio g. 1

The Wroclaw-based Head Up who have been playing energetic hardcore/ groove metal for more than 16 years now, will be met by trash metal party animals Tručas and Southern groove-oriented Dead Man’s Cross.

Saturday, 04 08, 22:00

Meeting the painter Egidija Brinkyte Lithuanian Folk Music Department, L. Zamenhofo g. 4

An exhibition by the artist called “25 kadras“ is now on show in the museum. The author’s paintings dating from 2012 to 2016 can be viewed in the exhibition – E. Brinkytė will talk about them during the meeting.

Wednesday, 04 12, 18:00

OKT play: “Cleansed”

Party: “Balkanaktis in Kaunas“

Kauno valstybinė filharmonija, E. Ožeškienės g. 12

The legendary Lithuanian opera singer will perform with Lithuanian state symphony orchestra.

Guest stars of the night are Asmik Grigorian, Joana Gedmintaitė, Sandra Janušaitė, Simona Liamo.

Play: “Kūno vartai” / “Gates of Body”

Play: “58 Dreams”

Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, Kęstučio g. 74A

The play by Dovilė Zelčiūtė gained a lot of attention in 2006 when it debuted in the Lithuanian drama reading week.

The resonance of the reading inspired the stage performance, too.

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Tuesday, 04 11, 19:00

“Avanti”: “Accordion Virtuosos” VMU Main hall, S.Daukanto g. 28

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A Night with Irena Milkevičiūtė

Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, Kęstučio g. 74A

The trio didn’t only bring Balkan music to Lithuania. This time they’re also bringing DJ Grounchoo from Barcelona.

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Thursday , 04 13, 18:00

Thursday, 04 13, 18:00

Club “Orixo”, Jonavos g. 40

Saturday, 04 08, 18:00

The psychological drama (play by Julius Keleras) is focusing on miscommunication, losing ties with oneself and the society, neglecting reality and similar problems.

April

Girstutis hall, Kovo 11-osios g. 26

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Studentų g. 50

Saturday, 04 08, 21:00

Wednesday, 04 12, 17:00

Musicians will perform the Viacheslav Semionov’s concert for accordion and orchestra “Freskos”, the Mikolaj Majkusiak’s concert for accordion, cello and orchestra “Rhythm Games” and Antonio Spaccarotella’s “Suria oriental Tango”.

A thought by Roland Barthes saying to be in love is like to be in Auschwitz inspired the British writer Sarah Kane to write “Cleansed“. This is its stage interpretation by Oskaras Koršunovas.

Friday, 04 15, 22:00

Party: “Dew It”

Bar “Dildė ir Akvarelė”, Vilniaus g. 16

Wednesday, 04 12, 19:00

Play: “Žinduolių perėja“ / “Mammals Crossing” National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

The play reflects today’s problems in the society: consequences of abortions, the relativity of death and the relationship of the living and the dead.

The investigators of new hiphop and club trax DJ JM and Boikafé, representing the Vilnius party crew Dewforanimals, are coming to present their idea of a party.

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Calendar Saturday, 04 15, 21:00

Thursday, 04 20, 18:00

“Punto Jazz” attic, Kęstučio g. 6

VDU Main Hall, S. Daukanto g. 28

Concert: “Mood Sellers”

“Avanti” closing concert

The inventors of drum’n’brass will perform their jazz, New Orleans second line, disco and Balkan music fuelled concert in the attic for the first time ever.

Friday, 04 21, 17:00

Book presentation: „Aisčių dvasinės tapatybės beieškant“ / “Looking for the Spiritual Identity of Aisčiai” Lithuanian Education History Museum, Vytauto pr. 52 Friday, 04 21, 17:30

April Saturday, 04 22, 18:00

Play: “Nuo raudonos žiurkės iki žalios žvaigždės” / “From Red Rat to Green Star” Kaunas Small Theatre, M. Daukšos g. 34

Book presentation: „Mėnulio sūnus“ / “Son of Moon”

Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio 56 Wednesday, 04 19, 18:00

V. Kudirka Public Library, A.Mapu g. 18

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Book presentation: “Kiborgų žemė / “Cyborg Land”

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The renowned sax player Liutauras Janušaitis will present his newest album together with the VMU Chamber orchestra and a handful of guest musicians.

Thursday, 04 20, 18:00

Koncertas “The Intriguing Trio Classics” Dovydas Pancerovas is a war journalist at 15min.lt who’s telling all about his trips to Eastern Ukraine in his first book. All of the profit will be donated to the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

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Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės g. 12

Meet Ieva Pranskutė (violin), Mislav Brajkovic (cello) and Morta Grigaliūnaitė (grand piano).

Chabua Amirejibi who passed away three years ago is considered the classics of Goergian literature. His book “Son of Moon” talks about a lonesome man ignoring the norms of society. A film “Shores”, based on the book, was released in 1977.

Friday, 04 21, 18:00

Play: “Alksniškės”

Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, Kęstučio g. 74A 2016 was the year of Kazys Grinius, the Lithuanian president that was active in the interwar years. The play by Gytis Padegimas is reminding us on his democratic values and principles of life.

Sunday, 04 23, 19:00

Concert: Domantas Razauskas and Saulius Petreikis Kaunas State Philharmonic, E. Ožeškienės g. 12 Tuesday, 04 25, 17:00

One litas literary award

Kauno menininkų namai, V. Putvinskio g. 56 The symbolic award of the nonexistant One litas will be celebrated for the 18th time. The idea of the award belongs to Petras Palilionis and has been actively cultivated by all of the writers in Kaunas.

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Calendar 04 25 – 05 05

Friday, 04 28

Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

VDU Main Hall, S.Daukanto g. 28

Exhibition: Marija Nemčenko

April

Friday, 04 28, 19:00

Play: “Pasimetimas” / “Losing oneself” “Šelteris”, Vytauto pr. 79

“Kaunas Jazz”: Kaunas Big Band and Nicholas Payton

Sunday, 04 30, 19:00

“Kaunas Jazz”: Dianne Reeves

“Žalgirio arena”, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 50

Sunday, 04 30, 12:00

Excursion “Ekskursas: pramonė”

The artist living between Lithuania and Scotland is ready to showcase her work from 2016 that’s focused on the topics of identity and exotics.

Saturday, 04 29, 12:00

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One of the most important jazz singers in the world is coming back to Kaunas after a 9-year break. Her concert will be decicated to UNESCO’s World Jazz Day. Expect songs from Reeves’s newest album Beautiful Life and the best pieces from her four decades on stage.

Old town cinema club: „Miegančių drugelių tvirtovė“ / “A Sleeping Butterfly Fortress”

V. Kudirka public library, A. Mapu g. 18 Thursday, 04 27, 16:00

Exhibition: “Lietuvių Šveicarija” / “Lithuanian Switzerland“ Kaunas Castle, Pilies g. 17

The exhibition dedicated to the centennial of the state of Lithuania is focusing on 10 Lithuanian photographers working in Switzerland. They reflect the life of the Lithuanian community in the country.

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The Kaunas Fortress Season Opening

Wednesday, 04 26, 18:00

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6th fort, Baršausko g.

The Kaunas Big Band will perform with Sabina Mustaeva, a 16-ear old child prodigy from Uzbekistan. Nicholas Payton is bringing us the “Afro Caribbean Mixtape”.

04 28 – 04 30

“Anime Nights“

KTU Electronics department, Studentų g. 50 The traditional event attracts hundreds of Japanese animation lovers every year. Two nights of that scheduled! The days will be dedicated to cosplay, manga etc.

The association for protecting and refurbishing the Kaunas Fortress is always throwing a party after finishing on working on an object. This time it’s the 6th fort. Get ready for a folk play, a performance by a flame theatre and a few exhibitions.

Saturday, 04 29, 23:00

“Kaunas Jazz”: “Yemen Blues” Restaurant-club „Combo“, Raudondvario pl. 107

The band is Middle East’s best kept secret of jazz. Led by Ravid Kahalani, the Israeli band have performed more than 300 show in the past few years.

The excursion initiative is back with a new event cycle dedicated to the industrial heritage of Kaunas. Read more on www.ekskursas.lt.

Sunday, 04 30, 23:00

Party: “Grūzas Ne Muzika” Bar “Lizdas”, Nepriklausomybės a. 12

The capital’s best DJs Manfredas and 12 inčų po žeme are visiting Kaunas with some depressing music.

More Events

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We are a respected nation that made an essential decision one hundred years ago, using the hearts, minds, hands and lips of its people as instruments. The decision consists of a perfect political idea mof how a state reconstructed from Medieval mist should look like. Great job.

VLiudas Mažylis, the VMU professor who discovered the Independence Act of Lithuania signed in 1918.

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE Laisvės av 59, 3th floor, Kaunas

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Monthly newspaper about personalities and events in Kaunas (free of charge)

Authors: Artūras Bulota, Daina Dubauskaitė, Donatas Stankevičius, Eglė Šertvyčūtė, Gunars Bakšejevs, Julija Račiūnaitė, Kipras Šumskas, Kotryna Lingienė, Kęstutis Lingys, Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis, Rokas Sutkaitis, Tadas Bujanauskas, Tautė Bernotaitė, Tautvydas Stukas, Teodoras Biliūnas Patrons:

KAUNO MIESTO SAVIVALDYBĖ

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ISSN 2424-4481 2424-4465

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2017 2017 Nr. Nr. 42 (20) (18)