Robotic Folk is J. Jurkunas’ solo electronic project. New album “Volume One” is released.
"Nida School Chronicle" is Shortlisted for "2021 Walk Listen Create" Awards
Our soundwalk opera “Nida School Chronicle” got shortlisted for “2021 Walk Listen Create” awards. 13 candidated were sellected from 150 entries. For more info press here.
Cooking Film Music in the Wild
Had pleasure to take part in a series of short educational clips for kids about music making. FIrst one - music for film. Always wanted to compose off-grid. The time given was too short to go deep into film music creation concepts, so I just skipped through some general ideas. The clip is in lithuanian.
"The Castle" Original Soundtrack on Spotify
“The Castle” original soundtrack is already on Spotify. The music blends lithuanian traditional hornpipes (birbynė) with celtic harp, string ensemble, pointilistic piano, a little sampling and a little bit of real celtic harp sounds into one dream. Some may notice, that the main theme is built on the sea motif from M. K. Čiurlionis symphonic poem “The Sea”.
"Audiodoodle #3" is released
phoo by © Dmitrij Matvejev
An interview about “Audiodoodle #3” and other meta musical topics. Thanks to musicologist Sigita Ilgauskaitė for an interesting conversation and patience preparing and editing the score for publishing. Thanks to Lithuanian Music Information Centre for the idea to publish the score, big thanks Trio Khaldei for premiere performance, especially to violinist Pieter Jansen for editing remarks. Hudge thanks to composer Zita Bružaitė, for commisioning the piece for the “Iš arti” festival in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Robotic Folk sunset session online today
My solo experimental electronic alter ego Robotic Folk will perform live sunset jam today 21.00 EET, address: tv.lmta.lt
Opera "Mažvydas" premiere on March the 11th
The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence of Lithuania - March the 11th, is marked by the premiere of opera „Mažvydas“. Based on the theatre play „Mažvydas“ by Just. Marcinkevičius. Performed by Giedrius Arbačiauskas, Monika Marija, Mantas Jankavičius, Rokas Laureckis, Jovita Vaškevičiūtė, Vladas Bagonas, Joana Gedmintaitė, Dovilė Kazonaitė. Dirrected by Kęstutis Jakštas, libretto by Arnas ališauskas, set dedign by Gintaras Makarevičius, costumes by Olga Filatova-Kontrimienė, choreography by Aušra Krasauskaitė, video by Rimas Sakalauskas, lights by Audrius Jankauskas. Two year project has come to an end, two hours of music, almost two hundred people involved. Thanks.
“Mažvydas“ cast and crew
Three E. Balsys tone rows
Well, this was an adventure. I do not write 12 tone row music. But it was a goo one. Thanks to really professional and supportive performers V. Talerko, K. Juodelyte, L. Lape, A. Grazulis. Thanks to R. Janeliauskas and his fruitful idea of Principles of Music Composition conference, that was held for the 19th time and the concert was a part of it.
"Letters" for voices and strings premiere in Warsaw today
Today “Letters” for foices and strings will be premiered in Warsaw.
The structure of the piece as well as the vocal lines are based on the Lithuanian and Polish alphabet letters with diacritics. Both languages own some special diacritic letters (ć, ł, ń, č, ė, į, etc.) as well as share some (ą, ę, and ż/ž) together.
The musical material is based on the archaic Lithuanian polyphonic chant sutartinės. The ethymology of the Lithuanian word sutartinė comes from the word sutarti, that means to agree, to accord, to relate, to be in good relation.
Robotic Folk "Pamoka" in Sirenos festival @Kablys
“Pamoka” by Robotic Folk was premiered in the joint concert in 2019,10,10 in Sirenos Festival @Kablys.
Robotic Folk in P&P
These months I had several gigs as Robotic Folk in Vilnius: in Paviljonas and Platforma.
“Oleg” premiere in Cannes
“Oleg” (dir. Juris Kursietis) was premiered in Cannes film festival Quinzaine program. It was a pleasure to take a small musical part in this project.
"The Castle": Unique Film Scoring Experience
Each film scoring project is unique. Music score for “The Castle” (dir. Lina Lužytė) is no exception. However, this film demanded more unique artistic decisions than usual. Highly sensitive and peculiar aspects of the film, demanded an unconventional approaches to music composition (that was happening in the first four months of 2019s), and instrumentation - consisting of birbynės (lithuanian hornpipes), celtic harp, Čiurlionis string quartet, boy soprano and piano. Big hugs to all performers, music and sound team Arūnas Zujus, Vytautas Bedalis (Mama Studios), Saulius Urbanavičius, Jonas Maksvytis (UP records), Artbox production - Kęstutis Drazdauskas and Justė Michailinaitė, and, of course, Lina - you rock! Thanks for “The Castle” experience!
Visit to Royal Danish Academy of Music
It was a great pleasure to have an opportunity to visit Royal Danish Academy of Music this week. This wonderful building is full of great professionals and passionate music lovers.
Scoring Session in Lapės
Scoring session for the short documentary by R. Kavaliauskas “Kaubojus”. Was a great pleasure to work with Kaunas String Quartet and visit Lapės - the legendary place.
Klaipėda: film scoring adventures
Vytautas in Gintas’ studio in Klaipėda
Today I had an honour to collaborate with two great musicians from Klaipėda city - Vytautas Grubliauskas and Gintas Litinskas. Vytautas recorded solo trumpet for the soundtrack of mine for the new Donatas Ulvydas romantic comedy “Ir visi jų vyrai” (engl. “Women in temptation”). Klaipėda is the third biggest city in Lithuania, and the main marine port. Since the movie plot is happening in Klaipėda, there is no better place to catch the spirit of this city than in the studio situated the centre of the city with musicians that contribute a lot to the magnificent sound of this city.
Jonas, Vytautas and Gintas
Jurkunas on Lithuanian Radio
Last week I had a pleasure to be invited to Lithuanian Radio to talk about my music. Press here to listen (in lithuanian).
Robotic Folk - in Riga
Robotic Folk - a solo electronic project of Jonas Jurkunas is presented as a video audiovisual work in Heavens Underground Printmaking in Riga exhibition. Live performance of the same composition was performed at the opening exhibition STIKLA KALNS/STIKLO KALNAS of Latvian and Lithuanian artists (curated by Iliana Veinberga (LV), Marta Vosyliute (LT) in the National Library of Latvia.
A Letter from Edition Peters
Edition Peters and me we write each other a letter once in a while. There's some publishing going on..
New work - "Meditation" for organ solo
"Meditation" for organ solo will be performed by Karolina Juodelytė and premiere is due this Thursday, November 9th, 6 PM, at the church of St. Casimir, Vilnius. The church is regarded to have one of the best sounding organs in Lithuania.
