Latvian pop band Stūrī Zēvele returns with its first music since its fantastic 2020 indiepop record Labvakar. The single “Neviens” (in English “Nobody”) is stylistically radically different but with the same level of detailed songcraft including the music video created by Artava studio artists Raitis Bērziņš and Zigmunds Ziemelis. It looks like and was filmed in a secondary school gymnasium (in Latvia’s capital city Riga) but at night with minimal lighting. The brooding crawl of the electronic rhythm and minimal instrumentation suits is reflected well in the images of people citing in a circle seemingly meditating on something heavy while another figure movies as though engaged in a mix of dance and Tai Chi. There is an undercurrent of something foreboding until the song picks up and the scene in the video looks like things are unraveling—behavior, emotional outbursts and the poise of the dancer until she opens her eyes as if waking from a dream and at this point the song ends suddenly as well like we’ve been privy to the soundtrack to private thoughts as outlined in the lyrics (in English below). There is a sinister undertone about the lyrics and and expressed desire for privacy and not granting others automatic access to minuscule details of our lives and how that fact of so much of modern existence can engender an impulse to isolate even as the illusion of connection puts up barriers between us. The song leans into those tensions and is more like something you’d expect from a post-punk band in substance and sound but the group’s music, though consistently inviting and accessible, has always resisted easy categorization and commands attention on its own terms. Watch the video for “Neviens” on YouTube and follow Stūrī Zēvele at the links below.
“Neviens” English lyrics
We don’t go in at all
if there are others sitting in the cafe.
It’s unpleasant when strangers listen to what you order,
when strangers watch you eat.
We don’t show the way to strangers on the street,
if a stranger calls – we don’t pick up.
We can’t be photographed, filmed – it’s forbidden.
Let no one speak on our behalf.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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