Elvi Soulsystems

Always managing to exist on the very fringes of the current state of the so-called dance music culture in Riga, Elvi Soulsystems has been performing for about two decades. His is a balancing act between not being afraid of flirtation with broad audiences, accessibility on the one hand, and sheer, uncompromising integrity on the other. Over time his ability to surprise an audience in any given setting has not wavered. The definitive wild card of the scene he always holds the tension of the opposites – light and dark, heavy and easy, loud and barely audible. Even longer than playing music, he has been making it – be it on his own as ELVI or within collaborative projects like ELVI/DUNIAN. As a curator he’s been a part of the development of the more gritty part of the Latvian scene – from heading club ONE ONE to co-creating the Klik Klak series, House Purgatorio, and CTyK. On the flip side, the same man also brings sunshine and lightness when playing together with long-time friend Judzhen as the duo Riga Graduate School of Love. Since 2020 Elvi Soulsystems has also started a record label called _too contemporary releasing his own music and that of enigmatic artists without a definitive location of origin.