Latvian
non-profit organisation "Musicians Society TORNIS"
"Musicians Society TORNIS" or "TORNIS"
was founded in the end of 1998 in Riga, the capital
of Latvia. This is a non-profit NGO the main goal of
which is to support Latvian unsigned / independent /
underground music bands and artists. We are going to
reach the aim by organising seminars and courses for
artists, advertising all activities and events of independent
/ underground scene, by supporting the press and publicity
for this theme, explanation and propaganda of such kind
of art to the public, by obtaining and distributing
the information about the activities free-of-charge.
The NGO "TORNIS" was founded on the basis
of 8 years long running unofficial / non-registrated
society / commune of several Riga's underground music
bands TORNIS or TORNIS rec. TORNIS rec. was is a music
label (since 1991 we have produced over than 70 cassettes
and cd's), concert and festival organisation and we
were the first Latvian music label who had an Internet
homepage (since beginning the of 1996). We have built
a record studio and rehearsing place for bands.
Playing and producing music we have experienced really
huge obstacles and barriers because of the non-commercial
character of our art (not just music, but also live
performances, cassettes cover art, ideology, etc.).
There are two main reasons:
1. general commercialisation of Latvian culture;
2. the small number of Latvia's population ( app. 3
mill.), which strictly means that in Latvia there is
no future for any non-commercial art without support
from outside.
On the base of our experience we decided to establish
an officially registrated NGO which could help us and
all Latvian independent / underground music scene.
At this moment we are working hard on such projects:
o Internet home page for LATVIAN UNSIGNED / INDEPENDENT
ARTISTS
(right now we are on the way to reconstruct the old
TORNIS rec. page which has been running since beginning
of 1996. In the renovated page there will be all co-ordinates
of Latvian unsigned / independent artists, scenes news,
free homepages for bands, links to bands, labels, organisations'
existing www pages, different databases of Latvian independent
music, etc.)
o Encyclopedia of Latvian independent / underground
music
(on our www page, on CD-ROM, on paper)
o Archive of music
(this project is related to the work on Encyclopedia
and will be presented also on the Internet, but the
main sources will be on CD's, available through our
or / and public library)
o Brochure (available on paper and on the Internet)
on basic questions about Copyright
(this could be our first finished project - a free information
booklet about basic questions on copyright subject for
musicians)
o Information and Support CENTER for Unsigned Artists
We're new organisation and at the very beginning of
our work. Thanks for attention,
sincerely yours
Janis Daugavietis
