Little Cavalry : keep it small & simple :)

When I discovered Riga in 2010, I felt pixies and new technologies can go together, contemporary design can meet with Lady Ballad at any corner, and Viking spirit can be smoothened with good blubbery syrup...but values never die.

However, Latvia was in time of crisis, and the Baltic tiger was suffering of a severe arthritis, with a loan made to the IMF & EU, the biggest in the international records of the time.  Before Greece and Spain, Latvia was brought into the spotlight stumbling, ill of real estate bubbles and banking cramps. At the time, each family had to support at least one jobless member, bankruptcy knocked at many doors, and poverty was threatening even the well-off.

 What stroked me in those days was the wonderful Latvian spirit, dignified and strong despite challenges; silver blue, as one could have imagined it when reading about their legendary characters surviving storms on the sea, back in the days..

Amongst those that impressed me, and made many Latvians smile with hope, it is the Little Cavalry, trotting around Latvia with their musical instruments and gardening tools. Musicians, students, teachers and bankers getting together regularly and travelling the country to fix a fence, plant trees in parks, singing, reciting poems in moments of complicity.  

As tradition has it, in the shinny spring of Latvian fields, next to the rivers with salmons, and magic stones, they sat together and brainstorm-ed:  it seemed natural to them that the pleasure of work and the inspiration whould bring some comfort and hope.

Renards Kaupers, the leader of the pop(ular) group Brainstorm, and initiator of the Little Cavalry,  found affiliations with one of the iconic figures of the Latvian modernism and resistance to the URSS, the poet and writer Imants  Ziedonis. Imants was invited to join and create more “Color tales” in a spirit that seems to be so common there.

 

 

 

 

                                                           I went into the field
                                                        and wangled a deal with
                                                    my thumb, taking a new tack--
                                                                      exulting,
                                                          a skylark gravid in grey:
                                                   look, the whole world grows grey
                                                         before it becomes green.

                          (Imants  Ziedonis, Flower of Ice, Trad. Barry Callaghan)

 

 

 

 

                                                  Sergey Kovalenkov (1939 - 2002)  illustration 

                                                  "Colored Tales”by Imants Ziedonis

 

Asking  Renars:  

(* selection from an interview for Impact International's  Report on Latvia, published originaly in Le Figaro, 2010)

What is the concept of Little Cavalry?

 Concept?? Have no idea!:) Ok, that is a bunch of young folks (musicians, students, teachers, bankers) that came together with a feeling that there must be something we can do to make things better in our country. At the same time we felt strongly that those are not politics we wanna be involved. So, what we have then? Guitars, two hands and good intentions. So, we decided once a month jump into a car and go to the countryside (the farther from Riga the better) to some small village and together with a help of a local youth clean bushes out of a school park in Augstkalne or make stairs and benches and a table for Lover’s hill in Baldone, or to help to split log and bring it under the shelter in Rozula’s school, or paint some wall in Kuldiiga or..you know, just making a small corner of Latvia nicer. And then we play football and sing by the firework for ourselves and those people we worked that day together.

 

People like Janis Holsteins( Goran Gora), Mara Upmale, Janis Strapcans participate to this project. What brings you all together?

 I think it is fun and friendship and the idea of doing something small and good.

 

How do you relate to the work of Imants Ziedonis? What is the element that is bridging generations and creates such strong connections in between individuals?

It is interesting: after some 3rd or 4th of our ‘rides’ we found out that what we do is what Imants and his friends did 30 years ago during Soviet Union times. Actually that was a possibility for them – creative people to make some kind of an  ‘island of freedom’ for them, where they could show their love to Latvia – work together and spend a time together discussing and inspiring each other. We met Imants and those guys and felt really relative and found so much in common.

What is Little Cavalry’s message to be sent worldwide?

Keep it small and simple!

If it would be to mix the message of “Welcome to my country” and “A day before tomorrow”, what has tomorrow to offer to your country?

A brand new day! You know, while we have this unique possibility given by God, we have all the time in the world to wake up in the morning and change the world the way we think it becomes better.

A DAY BEFORE TOMORROW, BRAINSTORM :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PIVMRDC9lU

.........................................................

 me, im telling

me im yelling

all the dreams i bought while sailing

peace and protection,

green grass without elections,

souls

theres no perfection

angels lighting

demons fighting

gold and silver blinding, blinding

stop or go

say yes or no

its a day before tomorrow

Brainstorm is one of the popular Latvian groups, with successful singles such as My Star, A day before tomorrow and On line. The musicians come from a generation that has experienced a dramatic change of systems. Born in Latvia, at a time when the Baltic country was integrated in the giant Soviet Union, they were part of the change, and members of the first generation to embrace the new possibilities and challenges that freedom brought.  Their musical style reflects those influences.

 

Imants Ziedonis is one of the cultural icons of Latvia, recognized as one of the most outspoken poets during the Soviet era.  Amongst his earlier works : collections of poetry  : 1961  Zemes un sapņu smilts (Sand of earth and dreams);1963 Sirds dinamīts (The heart' s dynamite); 1965   Motocikls' ( Motorcycle). He is also renowned for his folk tales and children's books. These included Krāsainās pasakas(1973, Colored Tales), Lāču pasaka(1976, Tales of Bears) and Blēņas un pasakas(1980, Twaddle and Tales), Kas tas ir — kolhozs?(1984, What is a Kolkhoz?).