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Sonagrama magazine published a very introspective article on my online friend (and mix-making diva) Laima Lisauskienė. I’ve copied a portion of it below – please see the link @ the bottom for the entire article.
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I’m Laima Lisauskienė from Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius. I studied Fine Art during my secondary education at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and went on to attain degrees in visual design at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Visual communication has been a key component throughout my education and professional career and remains central to my work in areas such as graphic design, corporate branding and advertising. Since 2010, I’ve been a member of the Lithuanian Graphic Design Association (LGDA). In addition, I have a long-standing interest in music and sound culture, which is the primary focus of this article.[1]
I love exploring the ways in which different media platforms can be used not only to distribute music, but also enhance communication between musicians and audiences in fresh and exhilarating ways. I am proud of my Lithuanian heritage and greatly enjoy visiting other countries and collaborating with musicians and other creative people from different cultures. In the past, I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively in countries such as Egypt, Germany, Spain and the UK. I had a wonderful time living in Bilbao, whilst working as a design consultant for an international conference on art and technology Technarte 2015. Consulting on Technarte was both a stimulating project in itself – combining art, technology and science – as well as an ideal opportunity to explore and expand my fascination with sound and music.[2]
After working on Technarte, I returned to Vilnius in late 2015 and was invited to create radio programmes for an innovative online music streaming project Radio Kaos Caribou (RKC), based in Ermont, France. Creating my fortnightly radio show Dimensions involved investing a considerable amount of time, energy and resources into discovering and acquiring music created by talented artists working, for the most part, under the radar of the mainstream music industry. I consulted professional audio design engineers and learned new skills, using technical expertise and resources of a well equipped sound studio to create my own Dimensions mixes. As a result, the compilation audio file for each show was specifically designed and engineered for my regular one hour slot on RKC. The inaugural Dimensions #1 show was first broadcast online 26 March 2016.[3]
Whilst crafting Dimensions radio shows for RKC, I also worked on a four-day sonic arts event Music Tech Fest (MTF) Berlin 2016 and this further enhanced my appreciation of experimental music and sound culture more generally. During MTF Berlin, I was inspired by a number of artists, notably the talented electronic musician and multimedia artist Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) after attending an exclusive preview described as ‘sketches’ of his permanent sound installation ‘Water Drops’ for Rijeka airport, Croatia.[4]
It was a joy to meet Robin and speak with him backstage at the festival. He kindly agreed to contribute a selection of his unique experimental music to include in my shows, such as the composition ‘Middlesex Voices Interlude’ featured in Dimensions #7 and, more recently, one of his latest albums ‘Mass Observation (Expanded)’. I am grateful to Robin for supporting Dimensions over the years and our continued collaboration.[5]
Overall, my positive experience of MTF included previews of work by contemporary artists – such as Benjamin Heidersberger, Bernd Deckers, David Fernandez, Greg Beller, Johannes Wernicke, Rikard Vilhelm Lindell, Robin Rimbaud and others – using the latest technologies in the sonic arts showcased at the festival, and this had a huge impact on Dimensions.
The growing experience and creative potential, discussions with practitioners and theorists in the sonic arts and design world, the expanding library of compositional works (audio, images, video and text), and the desire to reveal new music and narratives led me to realize my personal endeavour to transform Dimensions into a multifaceted, independently curated transmedia project.
© Tadas Kazakevičius, Lithuania, 2019
Momentum
As the year 2017 came to end, I left everything behind, transitioning from the eclectic ethos of RKC to a tranquil space that enveloped and allowed me to dream during sleep and waking hours. A most extraordinary dimension of time and space. I completed one path and embarked on a myriad of new ones, including new directions and vistas for Dimensions. I wanted to offer contributors and listeners a new approach or, if you will, portals to the conceptual context, core themes and content of future Dimensions.
In January 2018, Dimensions entered a new phase as an independent music program broadcast monthly on Mixcloud, incorporating new and exclusive material from a diverse array of music labels.[6]
‘Being in and moving around the city, navigating through a myriad of criss-crossing lifeworlds and meaning-filled spaces. Adrift amid the fluidity of time, traversing pathways and places of an urban habitat both familiar and unknown. Fleeting memories of times past, in which the real and imagined converge and dissolve effortlessly into each other. The past is constantly being imported into the present. Broken shells of a forgotten time, fragments of ever-changing identities born of the desire to inhabit and understand the world. This urban journey and flux of experiences simultaneously evoke feelings of fragility, reticence, strangeness, and anticipation.’
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Ambient Landscape 