Iļģi began at the Cultural Centre of Ilguciems in Riga where Ilga Reizniece, a professional violinist, founded the band as an ensemble of authentic Latvian folk music. They visited remote parts of Latvia in search for unrecorded folk songs and studied traditional performance, as well as sewing their own traditional costumes and building their own instruments. They also performed and passed on their knowledge to audiences as they traveled. Their music studies led to interest in the ancient history, archaeology, ethnography, mythology and traditions of cultures. Unfortunately these fields of interest held a lot of information considered dangerous by the Soviet regime ruling in Latvia at that time. During this time of the 1980s, the folklore studies in Latvia held a bespoken element of dissidence. The oppressive communist regime applied the same measures of control to the ethno-musicians as to rock groups: each performance had to be approved by a committee of communist party officials in advance and in the case of non-compliance, it was forbidden. From the very beginning, Iļģi found it hard to adjust to the musical language and understanding prescribed by the communist ideology. The superficial and sickly sweet officially proclaimed image of traditional culture was unacceptable to many artists at that time. For a long time Iļģi was banned from being mentioned in the media due to their uncompromising interest in the most fundamental and sacred layers of folklore: the traditional values, the traditional cycles of life in harmony with nature, family celebrations and the ancient mythology.

In the 1990s things began to change and the band continued to evolve to have skillful and well-known Latvian musicians join in. The mood of Iļģi's music ranges from a reflective, almost meditative calm, empowering the listener to overcome the sorrows and troubles, to an unstoppable, bubbling vitality. Different moods create a musical entity, multi-faceted as life itself, true to the eternal cycle and rites of human life. A self-described post-traditional band, they employ the modern musical themes and instruments in their records and have also incorporated the influences of ethnic music from other countries, including the Celtic and Slavic influences in Latvian music. Since 1989, the band has taken part in numerous music festivals in neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, as well as in Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland, Australia, the U.S., France, and China, gaining a worldwide audience and receiving rave reviews from the press. The fact that Iļģi is an integral part of world music was confirmed again in July 2006 when their album, Ne uz vienu dienu, was voted the 2nd Best European World Music Recording by the experts of World Music Charts Europe (WMCE). This was their greatest achievement so far and it has not been surpassed or equaled by any other group working in a similar genre from Latvia.

Planina will open for Iļģi. Planina performs haunting and beautiful songs from Eastern Europe, including music from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine, and the Sephardic and Rom (Gypsy) traditions from some of those areas. The word Planina means "mountain" in several south Slavic languages.

For tickets visit www.swallowhillmusic.org or call (303) 777-1003. Discounts are available for Swallow Hill members.

About Swallow Hill Music Association:
Helping people make music since 1979 years, Swallow Hill Music Association is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States as a source for folk, roots and acoustic music. With more than 2,100 members—some of whom are also volunteers—Swallow Hill provides a place to celebrate music that is rarely heard elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain Region. Three concert venues house more than 150 performances a year, featuring some of the world's great artists as well as up-and-coming new talent. The Julie Davis Music School at Swallow Hill provides a valuable and affordable extra-curricular educational resource to the community with more than 50 music instructors involved in more than 240 adult classes and 70 children's classes annually.

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