Seven new attractive acts join the artists already announced for the I Love You stage – electronic band from Italy JoyCut, the project Erki Pärnoja : Himmelbjerget from the member of the Estonian superband Ewert and The Two Dragons, The Roop from Lithuania and Latvian musicians Kaspars Bedrītis, Kasetes, Howling Owl and Židrūns. This announcement completes the program of this stage.

I Love You stage of the Positivus festival was the place where several years ago Ewert and The Two Dragons – at the moment one of the best-known Estonian bands – got into the spotlight. This summer guests of the festival will have a chance to see the side project of the band’s songwriter and guitarist Erki Pärnoja, which is created in collaboration with Scandinavian drummer Ulrik Ording and producer and keyboardist Filip Leyman.

At the end of 2015 they released the EP Himmelbjerget what they described as “music for a non-existent film” or “Western music in Scandinavian ambience”. In Estonia most of the concerts of this project were sold out and the largest national weekly magazine Eesti Ekspress Group described the music as “not from our time, but neither from the future or the past. Rather from the parallel time zone, which is a cleaner, more complete, more reasonable, meaningful and inspiring compared to the time in which we live … ”

Dark-wave and electronic music project JoyCut have played together with bands like Arcade Fire, Editors and Modest Mouse and have conquered the hearts of listeners in Europe as well as in the United States. They have played in countless notable festivals including Eurosonic, Europavox and many others, this summer the musicians will perform at Positivus. “Music that will never be enough” (Acoustic Music, US), “The sound that seems just like from the future where robots and people share their natural meals and feelings of hope” (MTV Iggy, US), as well as other favorable words follow JoyCut no matter in what country they perform.

The band Kasetes, where brothers Rūdolfs and Kārlis Zagorskis as well as Oskars Tupuriņš have combined their creative experience and musical impressions, was founded in Vaidava in 2012. The band’s debut album Jaunā kārtība (New Order) was released at the end of the last year, however Kasetes was known to public already before from creating remixes and new arrangement for melodies of well known bands like Sattelites LV, Astro’n’ou, Rīgas Modes and Carnival Youth. Apart of remixes the band has created some original compositions as well, including the soundtrack for the short movie of Reinis Spaile “Tukšās zemes ritmi”.

Kristaps Bedrītis – also known as KRIS – is a musician with acoustic guitar, thoughts and notes about things happening within and around him as well as a wish to pass this on to people that stop and listen for a moment. Music that always carries personal stories and reflections. Traveling and living abroad several years ago opened up another perspective for Kristaps and initiated his song writing. Kristaps’ first mini album – Worlds Apart EP – was released at the beginning of 2015, songs of the album was recorded at home by his fireplace. Since 2016 Kristaps is joined by other musicians – Nauris Babris (drums) and Kristaps Grīnbergs (bass guitar) from Future Folk Orchestra as well as talented Latvian guitarist Rihards Lībietis. This collaboration allowed creating more diverse and dynamic sound and energy.

Lithuanian band The Roop offers pop rock with completely fresh sound that is polished thorough hard work – their debut album was recorded in four long years of search for the right sound. All of the band members previously have been part of other musical projects; the vocalist Vaidotas Valiukevicius is also well-known TV program director and actor. The Roop as their mission considers initiation of a debate on social issues therefore the music they create has its clear and unequivocal message.

Židrūns is a Latvian rock music band that has been in the scene of independent music since 2004. The band plays its original music that goes in direction of punk rock, garage rock and post-hardcore, but through the years it has found its own, although constantly changing indie rock sound. The band has released two albums Židrūnam sāp and Židrūns Dzeltenbaltdzeltenais, the third albums is in the process. In Židrūns songs particular attention is paid to lyrics that are based on the group’s own prose as well as works from poets – from Rainis to Inga Gaile.