tekhnē #11 - Kārlis Tone & Erik Alalooga

Bi-monthly insights into the activities of the European project tekhnē, which started in 2023. The series showcases a selection of artists who share and discuss their work and listen to recorded material. By putting the focus on the user rather than the developer, this project aims to explore the emancipatory potential of technology in music and sound art. Technology as an art of craft, appropriating and transforming existing tools, to imagine multiple ways of creative misuse. tekhnē is a collaborative project, co-funded by the European Union.

This episode features two talks with the Latvian artist Kārlis Tone and the Estonian artist Erik Alalooga, presented in sequence. Interviews are accompanied by sounds captured during the performance of Kārlis Tone's commission at the Skaņu Mežs festival and Erik Alalooga's performance at the joint Baltic Analog Lab and Skaņu mežs residency in Riga, Latvia, in the autumn of 2025 and early spring of 2026.

The interview is conducted by Viestarts Gailītis. The music that one hears is as follows: two fragments from Tone’s composition "Balss lūzums" (eng. - voice fracture), a song “Garu čuksti vados” (eng. - spirit whispers in the cables) by Tone’s band Grab and Erik Alalooga’s songs “Jack the Chopper” and “The Boreal Desert”. Kārlis Tone and Erik Alalooga are experimental musicians and sound artists from Riga and Tallinn, respectively.

Tone is known for his work in the experimental rock band Tesa (est. 2005), the Grab project, and the neo-folk outfit Līgas ph3, as well as for theater music, while Erik Alalooga is a performance, sound, and kinetic art veteran and teacher. He will present his installation at the Skaņu mežs festival in October 2026.