Elizabete Balčus

About

" A cosmic electronic art pop fairy from Latvia "

The label ‘artist’ quite often gets thrown around way too much. While it’s true that pretty much any musician is technically an artist, there’s no question that some earn the label more than others. Elizabete Balčus is one such musician: an Artist with the capital A.

Her live shows usually walk a fine line between performance art and a concert, thus creating something utterly unique in an oversaturated music market. How often have you seen someone using fruits and veggies as a substitute for synthesizers? And it’s not just a gimmick. It’s part of an audio-visual performance that can be best described as a musical cosmos that puts the listener somewhere in between the dancefloor in a wild rave and a trance-like state.

Elizabete’s music can be described as electronica, art-pop, avant-garde, psychedelic and ambient with a hint of jazz and classical music (after all, she’s a professionally trained flautist, which is an essential part of her music). While often such a wide range of influences can suggest a pretty bland act trying to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, in Balčus’ case, it’s a symptom of her natural evolution as an artist.

There has been a tremendous progression in her endeavours – after a good but not spectacular debut with the indie-folk band Sus Dungo in the early 2010s, every single one of her solo projects has become more and more artsy and experimental, culminating with her third album ‘Hotel Universe’ in 2022.

‘Hotel Universe’ is a very fitting title for the Balčus’ debut under the Canadian label Mothland. It sounds both like something very alien and out-of-this-world, as well as something super-familiar, thus creating beats that even prime Kraftwerk in the 1970s would be proud of. It’s an album that requires full attention from the listener to really understand it, but if given, it’ll reward with layer upon layer of interesting sounds and unique hooks. If your musical taste extends into the depths of experimental music (although this is somewhat understandable to the mainstream public as well), ‘Hotel Universe’ undoubtedly should be on your radar.