The title Post Fluxus games conceals a unique project – an evening of music and lyrics, during which Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis will read his poetry and Vladimir Tarasov will fill it with enchanting percussion sounds. The duo has recently released a vinyl record, which will be introduced during this evening.

“These are spontaneous games between artists, where they play with sound, text and image for their own pleasure, without trying to please viewers and listeners, avoiding clichés and standards. And the audience becomes not only witnesses but also participants in this process,” Tarasov describes the project.

Prof. V. Landsbergis adds, “Music always rescues. In the hour of fatigue, too. It is almost the best form of relaxation, an opportunity to transport oneself to a more perfect world of beauty and to get away from troublesome things. Music doesn’t bother, music liberates. As music teacher Ignas Prielgauskas said, “Admire when you devise something up.” One should be encouraged to be a deviser, or, as our classics used to say, ‘pramaniūgas’. ‘Pramaniūgas’ is a living person.

Music is a lot to me. In the most general sense, it is a gateway to the world, to understanding it, to understanding man. To understanding oneself… It’s an opportunity to discover a lot of things: things you didn’t know, things you haven’t touched yet. It is also a field where I have worked a lot in many other ways, where there are various things that have been done and things that are still unfinished, but it is not them that are the most important for me. Sometimes I’ve thought about music as a model of the world, about expressing its essence in the purest, most beautiful way. This is not a new idea. People smarter than me have talked about it, people who have understood it a very long time ago”.

This performance is also the launch of the duo’s new LP Post Fluxus games.

Percussionist, composer and visual artist Vladimir Tarasov has left a strong imprint on jazz and academic music. He composes for orchestras, films, theatre, and has been a member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union since 1991.

Tarasov came to Lithuania in 1968 from Arkhangelsk. In 1971, he became a member of the Ganelin Trio, recorded 34 albums with the Trio, and in 2017 was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art for the creation of the Lithuanian Jazz School.

The musician has collaborated with many performing arts representatives and institutions, including the Stuttgart State Theatre, the Majestic Theatre of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and the Josef Nadj Centre Choregraphique National in Orléans. In 1999-2002, he was the head of the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania, directing productions there.

Since 1991, Tarasov has been participating in solo and group exhibitions of visual art, creating audiovisual installations, for which he often finds themes during his travels to exotic countries. He has shown his works at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Venice Biennale, EXPO-2008 in Zaragoza, Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, major Lithuanian exhibition venues and other art centres.

He has taught and given seminars at the Bremen School of Music, the Podewil Art Centre in Berlin, the Orléans Academy of Fine Arts, the University of California, the University of the Pacific, the art academies of Düsseldorf and Vilnius, and other schools.

Tarasov regularly takes part in theatre, jazz and visual art projects in France, Italy, Germany, Russia, USA and other countries. He has organised numerous projects with Lithuanian and foreign literary artists.

The percussionist has collaborated with Andrew Cyrille, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Lauren Newton, Butch Morris, Thomas Stanko, Didier Petit, Mark Dresser, Gyorgy Szabados, Masahiko Satoh, Kazutoki Umezu, Anatoly Vapirov, and other prominent improvisers and jazz musicians.

Tarasov’s talent as a composer and improviser is best revealed in his solo percussion projects. His discography includes dozens of solo albums. For his contribution to Lithuanian jazz, he has been honoured with the Vilnius Jazz Award and the Grand Prix of the Birštonas Jazz. He has shared his life and creative experiences in several books.

Vytautas Landsbergis – Lithuanian statesman, politician and cultural activist, cultural historian, pianist, musicologist, signatory of the 11 March Act. He graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatoire (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre), worked there as a concertmaster, and taught at the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis School of Art, the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute, and the Klaipėda faculty of the Lithuanian Conservatoire (since 1978 – Professor).

In 1988–1990, he was the Chairman of the Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania) Seimas Council, in 1990–1992 he was the Chairman of the Supreme Council–Reconstituent Seimas and one of the leaders of the Council of Baltic States. From 1996 to 2000, he chaired the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, and from 2004 to 2014 he served in the European Parliament.

V. Landsbergis has made a significant contribution to the field of musicology by researching the musical culture of Lithuania in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially the legacy of M. K. Čiurlionis, and by disseminating the ideas of the avant-garde Fluxus movement since its inception in the middle of the last century.

The Professor’s achievements have been recognised with the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize (2011), the highest state and public awards and prizes of Lithuania and many foreign countries.