Ian Ethan Case  * Open Land Music

“LANDSCAPES” - Gints Smukais (LATVIA) & Ian Ethan Case (USA)

Innovative acoustic guitarists Ian Ethan Case and Gints Smukais present their 2027-2028 concert program “LANDSCAPES,” which takes listeners on a magnificent audiovisual journey through some of the northern hemisphere's breathtaking vistas and untouched nature.

Following two highly successful series of concerts throughout Latvia and Estonia in 2023 and 2025, the upcoming tour will be the first to extend beyond the Baltics for the unique collaborative project, during which listeners will be treated to original instrumental compositions from the duo's forthcoming album "Landscapes," set to be released in March 2027. The music performed by these masterful fingerstyle guitarists is accompanied by painstakingly crafted video projections featuring cinematic aerial footage by videographers Kristaps Ungurs, Annija Mangale and Charley Voorhis. The audiovisual experience guides audiences through an unforgettable world of multi-layered soundscapes and pristine wilderness, from the forests of Finland to the Fjords of Norway, waterfalls of Iceland, lakes of Latvia, large-scale rock formations of the American Southwest and more.
 

IAN ETHAN CASE
Acoustic double-neck guitarist and Candyrat Records artist Ian Ethan Case (Boston, USA) is quickly becoming recognised as "one of the most creative and engaging fingerstyle guitarists in the world" (International Center for Creativity).

His unique, one-of-a-kind playing style and compositional voice have drawn praise from icons such as John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), bassist Lee Sklar (James Taylor), Windham Hill Records founder William Ackermann, and fingerstyle guitar legend Don Ross, who declared his live performance “some of the most massively inventive musicianship I’ve ever heard/seen." Other listeners have described his music as a cross between Michael Hedges, Steve Reich, and Pat Metheny.

Ian has recorded, performed and/or opened for some of the most respected artists in instrumental non-classical music, including Manu Delago (Björk), Victor Wooten, Stanley Jordan, GoGo Penguin, Jharis Yokley, Andy McKee, and Grammy Award winners Eugene Friesen and Paul McCandless, as well as members of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony, Hartford Symphony and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. In the United States, his music has been featured on national public radio programs including NPR's "Here & Now" and PRI's "Echoes", while several viral videos have reached at least 14 million viewers worldwide.

Growing up in a rural area with few musicians to play with, Ian had to develop creative ways to expand his sound as a solo musician, using a combination of technology, unusual instruments and invented techniques to achieve the multi-layered music he heard in his head. He later studied at Berklee College of Music and gained further insight through summer music camps, clinics and private lessons with top jazz musicians such as John Patitucci, Antonio Sanchez (Pat Metheny), Aaron Goldberg (Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel), Mike Mainieri (Steps Ahead), Adam Rogers (Michael Brecker, Chris Potter), and percussion masters Giovanni Hidalgo, Jamey Haddad, and Glen Velez.

Since then, he has developed and refined his unique voice and live performances in many hundreds of concerts throughout the USA and Canada, as well as in Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Italy. The "Landscapes" album follows his 2015 breakout double-disc solo album "Run Toward The Mountains" and 2018 ensemble album "Earth Suite" (both released on Candyrat Records), along with the 2024 "Open Land Trio" EP.  He continues to push boundaries and expand his sound, newly enhanced with organ pedals, foot percussion, and cutting-edge electronic capabilities all tastefully integrated into his masterful acoustic playing. As one first-time listener in California exclaimed, “Ian’s music is phenomenal - watching him play is not ‘listening to music’; it’s a full mind experience. Transporting.”  

More information about Ian Ethan Case is available here:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ian.e.case
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openlandmusic/ 
- Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/7deQa5E5yCiQDssmAao3Z4?si=eq-FDMOISjW40IdxRqPC2w 
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openlandmusic 
- Website: https://ianethan.com/

GINTS SMUKAIS
Gints Smukais is a rising Latvian guitarist and composer and the most recent recipient of the highly prestigious Latvian GAMMA award for Best Instrumental Artist for 2025. Since 2011 he has explored composition and percussive fingerstyle, and has regularly performed in concert halls and stadiums throughout Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and beyond, both with his own music and in collaboration with well-known Latvian musicians (ansis, Alise Joste, Jānis Aišpurs, Jānis Stībelis, MUSIQQ, Annija Putniņa, Latvian Voices, Kristīne Prauliņa, Kaspars Zemītis, Olga Rajecka, Miks Dukurs, Koris "MASKA", etc.), both in the academic and popular music scene.

Competitions:
2019 Walnut Valley International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship: 3rd place (World Championship)
2019 Fingerstyle Collective International Fingerstyle Guitar Contest: 3rd place
2017 Canadian International Guitar Festival Fingerstyle Contest 2017: 2nd place.
Original music album "Flourish", published in 2018, was nominated "2018 Debut of the Year" at the Latvian Music Recording Award 2019.

The collaborative project "BĒRZIŅŠ JAUNAIS SMUKAIS", an original music album published in 2022, was nominated "2022 Instrumental or Intergenre Music Album of the Year" at the Latvian Music Recording Award 2023.

Gints has performed as a soloist at the world's largest music industry export show "NAMM Show 2018", which took place in January 2018 in California (USA) - the first fingerstyle guitarist from the Baltic States to have performed at an event of this scale. In 2014, Gints became the winner of the talent competition "Show What You Can" organised by RigaTV24.

In 2021, Gints represented Latvia at "Tallin Music Week".

"I've only met Gints about three times, but listening to his music, it feels like we've known each other for many years. There is a message in his compositions and performances that reveals Gints’s introvertedly subtle vision of the world, that marks his personality. Such a result can only be achieved through perseverance, faith in the path chosen and a God-given talent for discovering oneself in oneself and in others." (Aivars Hermanis – liepajniekiem.lv)


"Gints Smukais is definitely one of the brightest young guitarists working in the field of acoustic guitar. The album "Flourish" will be a sweet treat for fans of high-quality percussive guitar playing. This talented musician is characterised by excellent command of the instrument and a good sound". (Kaspars Zemītis – lsm.lv)


More information about Gints Smukais is available here:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/gints.smukais 
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/gintssmukais 
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Cd0nYSp2yNkJE5F5wVEE3
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gintssmukais