The festival Sound Days will take place this spring, April 21–25 in RTU Liepaja Academy and club “Kursa”. Sound Days is a week-long educational festival of sound and media art, electronic and experimental music focusing on the creation of audiovisual works, and since 2013 it has been held yearly in RTU Liepaja Academy’s Art Research Laboratory (MPLAB) space. The festival activities include 3-5 day long electronic music and visual arts workshops, discussions, presentations and audiovisual performance nights.
The project brings together several important fields – electroacoustic experimental music, design and visual arts, including sound, environmental and audiovisual art. In addition, the project engages with disciplines such as ecology and environmental sciences.
The 2026 festival is organised in collaboration with curator and artist John Grzinich (US/EE) and the residency centre MoKS, developing a thematic programme branch titled “Atmospheric Waves,” which will continue in 2027 as part of Liepāja 2027 European Capital of Culture. “Atmospheric Waves” is an art programme dedicated to the interaction between art and science, exploring wind and waves both as artistic material and as significant natural phenomena that influence our culture and identity, while also signalling the impacts of climate change.
The theme of wind, environment and sound is covered in the festival workshops and performances, as well as “Atmospheric waves” seminar on April 22 in which participants will present their research in forms of artist talks, performances and other artistic interventions.
The main focus of the festival week is the workshop programme (21.-25.04.2026.), which is hosted by international artists, musicians, researchers and instrument inventors John Grzinich(US/EE), J “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi (TH/ID/LT), Kathy Hinde(UK), Gijs Gieskes(NL), Florian Tuercke (DE), Jia Liu(DE), Marije Baalman (NL), Artūrs Punte (LV) & Maksims Šenteļevs (LV), Artis Kuprišs (LV) & Reinis Naļivaiko (LV).
The programme is organised around several thematic directions. One of them, Atmospheric Waves, explores the environment, wind and climate. The second thematic direction focuses on experimental instrument building, electronic music production using modular synths, open-source software and DIY methods. The workshop results will be presented in the form of performances, art installations and sound objects in a pop-up exhibition and concert evening on April 25.
The workshops are free of charge and applications will be open April 1 – 15.
On April 24 at the club “Kursa” we will host a performance programme in collaboration with the Lithuanian art residency center in Kintai and the Baltic sound art residency programme “Kintai.Kitaip.”
The “Kintai.Kitaip” programme is dedicated to experimental sound art practices and was initiated in 2022. In 2025, the programme was implemented in collaboration with the Baltic countries, selecting three artists from the Baltic region through an open call. The programme is based on the concept of “sonic awareness”—the ability to pay attention to the surrounding environment and practice attentive listening. The residency in the village of Kintai lasted two weeks, during which the artists explored the local soundscape, environment, nature and cultural landscape, reflecting on its transformations.
The performance programme will present all three artists with their electroacoustic works that were developed during the residency: Kris Kuldkepp (EE/DE) – “Curious Currents / Passing Through / Diffracting”, Agita Reķe (LV) – “Breeze”, Johanes “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi (TH/ID/LT) – “Untitled”.
Additionally to the “Kintai.Kitaip” Baltic artist programme artist, workshop host and instrument inventor Florian Tuercke (DE) will present his acoustic instrument project Longboardharp No. 5.
