Lasha Chapel is a Georgian refugee from Abchasia who grew up in Tbilisi. After ten years of playing rock ‘n’ roll, Lasha Chapel turned to electronic music in 2015. Having moved to Riga, he felt the lure of a world in which he could form and mould everything to his liking, and the importance of the quality and detail of the sound he created became clear to him. He began to play regularly at clubs, open airs and concerts in Riga and elsewhere.

Electronic music brought him to Berlin, where he faced the competition in this pulsing hub of electronic music. Lasha Chapel’s music has always incorporated elements that stem from his georgian roots, which he initially rejected and avoided. With time these elements became stronger, finally culminating in a separate project: TAMADA. Swirling between the worlds of electronic music and old georgian tradition. Tamada takes his name from the toast master and table host at any Georgian feast. Hand raised with a goblet of wine, stories, songs and toasts on his lips. Determining the atmosphere at a feast as surely as a DJ determines and creates the atmosphere on the dance floor.

His lyrics resemble toasts in ancient georgian, touching on current social issues and romantic sentiments. Tamada mixes many musical directions, acoustic as well as electronic and traditional georgian music. He christened this distinctive new style Deep Duqan. Tamada is still searching and experimenting, an ongoing process that is unlikely to end.

• LIVEUROPE is the first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote emerging European artists. LIVEUROPE is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.