Aigel @ Tower Riga

AIGEL — electronic, indie-pop, hip-hop, trip-hop, psychedelic.

The electronic duo AIGEL was founded in 2016 by Tatar singer-songwriter Aigel Gaisina from Kazan (Tatarstan) and music producer Ilya Baramiia from Saint Petersburg. After the full-scale invasion in 2022, the band made an anti-war statement, was banned in Russia, and left the country. Currently, Aigel Gaisina is based in Berlin, while Ilya Baramiia resides in Montenegro. The duo creates and performs in Russian, Tatar, and English.

The band’s debut album, "1190", was released in 2017, addressing issues of judgment and the prison system in Russia. The album received significant attention in the country. In the same year, AIGEL performed on the late-night show "Evening Urgant" on Channel One, Russia’s main TV channel. The song "Tatarin" from this album went viral, with its music video getting over 130 million views on YouTube and winning at the Berlin Music Video Awards.

The music video for the song "You're Born" was released two days after Putin’s presidential terms were "zeroed out" in 2020, giving…