Grafodroom + Paar Veini

Warning! This post may contain graphic images

Hey!
This weekend was incredibly short, but I got many good photos.

They wanted to know how come they hadn't been featured.

On Friday I went to see Zuks play at the opening of Grafodroom on Vabaduse Väljak. I had just gotten rejected by Tallinn Music Week and I needed to unwind.

You can contract all sorts of stuff from openings and sailors.

Grafodroom was a classical artists' venue. A basement with low ceilings, bare walls and a strong concentration of creative people. As the night progressed, a lot of traditional things happened.

Listening to the guy in black with a guitar.

There were different performers playing, I happened to miss some of them as the sound was most pleasant to listen to from the third room. I did see the guy with an electric guitar, dressed in black. He recruited Zuks to his band to play the backing tapes.

Zuks has a band

As usual I helped Uku with putting effects on tracks and making perfect loops. After our set there was a couple that played some generic ambient. We played Mortal Kombat on an arcade machine which was made out of a computer. I think that was the coolest thing there. The shout out for that goes to Ott.

Pipraviin from the jar.

At some point two girls arrived with a bottle of Pipraviin (spiced vodka) and I ended up drinking more of it than would have been reasonable.

Shopping for women.

Another hero of the night was the shopping cart. Noone else danced as much as it did. After all of that I swung by Must Puudel to grab a cider before heading home at 4:30.

Meeting people at Must Puudel

On Saturday I started at Clazz and continued to Red Emperor where I hadn't been before. I was pleasantly surprised by that place. But it's incredibly hard to find the entrance.

The wonderland of Red Emperor

From there I continued to Paar Veini, where some friends were playing records and others were drinking wine. I hadn't been there either. The fact that there wasn't much more than wine to drink was a downer as I have quit drinking wine. The sound was good though and I would like to go back to hear a good performance there.

Japan isn't that far!

I will be DJing twice in the coming week. I'm warming Sunlight Heart's EP tour. First on the 14th in Von Krahl and then on the 16th in Kink Konk. I will be playing a laid back electroish set so come have a listen. I won't probably do something like that anytime soon again.
See you there!
Barthol

Andy Warhol in Estonia project by Kiwa and Martin Saar

Some people spend their whole lives thinking about one particular famous person

Hey you!
This wednesday we went to a special art event which was the presentation of "Andy Warhol in Estonia's" trailer. It took place at the studio of Martin Saar on Tatari street. Kiwa was starring as Andy Warhol.

Kiwa as Andy Warhol with security chicks

There were three parts to the event. First there was the screening which took some time because it was too light outside. The movie is planned to be finished in 2017 and to be shot in different locations around the word.

The show started already outside of the gallery

The event was semi-closed, but someone told me that the last event had been packed with local celebrities. Loads of Champagne, beer, wine and vodka were served.

Andres Lõo taking a smoke break

Secondly there was a piano concert by Martin Saar, which sadly was only/mostly covers and no original works. I didn't know what to make of it.

Posing with paintings is almost as good as posing for paintings.

The paintings combined whatever you come across on the internet "before you diagnose yourself with depression, make sure you are not in fact surrounded by assholes" type of stuff. It's hard to predict if such memes will stand until next year or the one after that. The paintings were pretty to look at no doubt.

A fresh Warhol fan inspecting the show

The third part was the auction where Martin Saar was supposed to sell his works off the walls. He only sold about half of them and after that it was cancelled because the prices weren't high enough. So sadly my little sister didn't get to buy her first piece of art.

The audience waiting to see the trailer for Andy Warhol in Estonia

By the end of the night the coffee machine shut in as someone had poured champagne into the extension cord. Also one visiting artist had gotten super drunk, asked all the girls to pose for him and basically got kicked out in the end.

Martin Saar using on of his paintings to cover the window

This was supposed to be the last exhibition by Martin Saar before he leaves for the states to study art there. I'm excited to see what direction he'll take in the future. It was an exciting Wednesday evening and it continued for us in the center until 5 a.m.

Kiwa being used as a mirror

See you soon!
Barthol

Festival fever #3

"I would like to have your work printed on a full suit."

Hey you!
Last weekend I enjoyed the Art ist kuku nu ut festival. This time the fever was the good kind. It was the art festival of the year over here which was born from the ashes of the former art month. I had my "Shades of grey" exhibited there - three prints filled with dollars, pounds and euros. The concept has to do with the virtuality and symbolism of money and the differences between different currencies. It also works as an op piece. I recommend seeing it for yourself as the physical aspect is important, but you can see a detail from it below.

A blonde in front of "Shades of grey"

Detail from "Shades of grey"

We spent most of the weekend going from a show opening to another and discussing art and culture with the foreign guests. It was inspiring to meet and discuss art with people from around the world. The best known artist exhibited was Marina Abramovic. Her show was put up at the leaning museum of Tartu. The opening are always crazy, not so much time to look at the works, because it's mostly about socializing. We had fun with Kaarel from Popop and Anni from Style hurricane. I'll definetly go back to see it again. Also I didn't get to see everything at our exhibition. I liked the plane video by Laura Toots, it reminded me of the av show about planes and airports at Plektrum couple of years ago. Unfortunately I can't remember the name.

Checking the bus schedule for the imaginary stop in front of the gallery.

There was also a show called "Away from Tartu" in Y gallery with a dark tunnel leading through the gallery. First you had to take a number and wait for your turn before the locked door opened and you could venture into the dark tunnel. There was also a temporary bus stop installed in front of the gallery door with the stop name being Away.

Neringa Cerniauskaite from artnews.lt by the river

The festival was well organized and had exhibitions, film screenings, discussions and a Russian dinner. All the night ended in local bars and clubs. Saturday mornings hangover breakfast was especially fitting. Much respect to Rael and Kaisa for organizing Tartu's art event of the year and I hope it will be organized next year as well with a club night included. Come have fun with us on facebook.

See you soon!
B

Opening for you

"Why the hell did we have to wait outside for half an hour"

Hey you,

On tuesday we had  the opening for our exhibition. I was glad to see a lot of you there. The people were waiting in line outside of the gallery door for the opening as we still had to mount the sound gear and some of the works. My altar with the golden icon of K8 Mosh was up already 4 hours before so I just had to light the candles, but other artists struggled more with their works. 

Me and the Y gallerist in BLO ME shirts

At the exhibition you can see my digital paintings originally made for KUMU in 2010, but only two of them were then exhibited. So now for the first time you can see all five of them. They are beautiful although beautiful isn't really appreciated.

Exhibition opening speech by Edvin Aedma and my performance

There were performances planned for you at the art opening. Most of them went well. Including the speech about the semiotic context of neurolinguistic cerebral polar processes, the showcase of special children's clothes and my live show. One of the artists wanted to make a performance playing a synth. He has never learned to play the synth and so it was a problem for him but that was the essence of the performance. I was happy to showcase my music as my american friends hadn't heard it before. There could be a future collaboration with one of them. We'll see soon enough.

Popop blogger with two girls. 

Some of the guests stayed for hours as we played music, talked and hung around the gallery. Thanks again to all of you who already came and everyone else still has until the 8th of May to come and see it in Y-gallery.

The crowd looking at my paintings at the opening

"Man, your sound talks big talk"

Two of my tracks were used in a short video in Switzerland. I have no idea what it's about because I can't understand the word they are saying. I guess it's okay because one of the tracks has lyrics in Estonian so they don't have any idea what the music is saying. I will post it as soon as it's public.

I like girls who like beautiful art, especially if they wear my shirt.

Thanks for waiting for this post and for coming. As the spring keeps getting worse, download my songs from the player up there on the right and listen to them from your iPod.

See you soon

B

My hot summer track spinning in France.

Yesterday I finnaly received my copy of the Europavox compilation. It's a festival that includes all genres and all European countries at the festival and on the compilation. I had tried to find it before on the internet but there's no mention of it. It's the first time that I have been featured on a compilation and I'm content that it's a French one. Other artists on the electro disc include Lo-Fi Fnk, Zombie Nation and Kissy sell out.

As the weather gets cooler I have more time to stay inside and work on my projects. I will probably send out the copies of my new novel to 3 publishers and see what they have to say. If all goes well it could be published before Christmas.

Also I'm continuing work on remixes. The Tallinn Daggers remix is almost finished and will be released in a couple of months on a single. There is at least one more remix that I'll be doing soon. It's a little bit early to talk about it but it will probably get released as well. So you will have some ear candy to listen to. Also I will make a little mix of the new tracks and remixes(including the yet to be released ones) and post it on my space soon.

In the past week I had two photo shoots and I should have the photos soon. The first one was with Gabriela Liivamägi and it involved a soviet playground and project housing and me playing the keytar and doing crazy stuff. It has a certain nostalgic vibe to it. This is a photo from an earlier shoot she did which I absolutely love and which inspired me to contact her.

The second shoot was with Timo Toots and it involved a field, an abandoned house and the railway. It will be interesting to compare the feminine and masculine POV. More on the photos when I get them.