Fashioning a hypnotic sonic universe, which melds expressive vocalisations with lush use of software synthesisers, Latvian artist Sign Libra makes music quite unlike much we’ve heard before. We caught up with her to find out more about her journey in expressive music-making, and how she shapes her boundless galaxy of sound…
With its lo-fi camcorder aesthetic, and repeated shots of a chunky old desktop computer keyboard, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the music video for Sign Libra’s Le Chat was filmed back in the mid-’90s, and recently dug out of your parents’ attic. Yet Sign Libra – the artistic persona of Latvian musician Agata Melnikova – couldn’t be more 21st century.
Operating entirely in-the-box, Sign Libra creates arresting arrangements, dominated by her expressive, lyric-free vocalising. Fixated on the intricacy and beauty of nature in both a physical and personal sense, her albums to date (2018 debut Closer to the Equator, and 2020’s follow-up Sea to Sea) both explored different facets of the natural world, but Agata’s latest record, Hidden Beauty takes a more introspective angle. Across its ten tracks, she delves into the various facets of female nature. “I didn’t want this album to be straightforward in its concept, but rather like a collage, a puzzle,” Agata tells us. “There are personal themes, like loneliness, acceptance of your body, ageing, overcoming your fears. These topics are pretty serious, but with music I wanted to make them more lighthearted, keeping in a dreamy state of mind.”
Tuning up
We wonder how Agata’s journey first began, and why it was that she chose music as her art form. She takes up the story: “Since early childhood, I was inspired by both nature and synthesiser sounds, which I heard on ambient and new-age music cassettes owned by my parents. My professional relationship with music started when I entered Emīls Dārziņš Music School [locally known also as a junior music conservatory] in the piano department in 1995 in Riga. A few years later, I switched to the music theory and history department, where I was learning to write instrumental pieces at the composition classes. Already back then, these little compositions had nature-themed titles and neo-classic touches.”
When she finished her studies at this respected music school, Agata continued to delve into musicology at the Latvian Academy of Music. “I tried to move away from the academic,” she says, “and find some middle ground.” Melnikova explains that she found the learning process in both institutions limited, and that they were lacking in musical variety. Wanting to branch into more contemporary (and more exciting) domains, Agata began to pursue a parallel career as a DJ. “This really helped to expand my inter
