Riku Lätti

South African musician

Riku Lätti is a South African singer, songwriter, and writer. After matriculation in 1991 at Hoërskool Florida, Johannesburg, he studied philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand where he finished his honors degree. He changed his name to Victor S. Wolf and claimed that Riku Lattii was "dead." Since then he composed the complete film score for Jans Rautenbach's film "Abraham", on which he was credited as Riku Lätti, thereby being effectively resurrected. In South Africa, Riku collaborated with superstars such as Koos Kombuis, Laurika Rauch, Frazer Barry, Churchil Naudé, David Kramer, Stef Bos, and Paul Riekert, among others. His songs have been performed and recorded by people like Karla du Plessis, Laurika Rauch, Bobby van Jaarsveld, the all girl punk band The Pheobes, and the jazz outfit Tsunami, and Izak Davel. In 2005, he broke onto the international music scene when he completed his first tour in Belgium and the Netherlands. In 2006, during a follow up tour through Europe, he performed with Stef Bos. On October 1, 2007, Lätti released his first album in the Benelux (Akoesties). For this album, he re recorded some of his best songs in a stripped down version, using only his voice and a piano or a guitar. Riku, together with Jahn Beukes, wrote the music for the award winning SABC television series Hopeville. Hopeville won the prestigious Rose d'Or in Switzerland for best international TV series. It was also nominated for an Emmy Award. Other scores include the soundtrack for the KykNet series Wie lê waar and the drama series Vlug na Egipte. He won a South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) for his sound design and film score for the feature film Die Wonderlike Avonture van Hanna Hoekom. Other awards Riku has won include 2 GMT (Geraas Musiektoekennings). The first for best alternative artist for his album Pleister vir my Nerwe. The second for best male vocalist for his album Aan't sterre tel. He also got a Vonk Music Award for his album Die President se keuse. His greatest work is the collaborative album Radio Lava with Jahn Beukes and Arnaud van Vliet featuring his original work. He accused the South African media of not having transformed after the end of Apartheid. He is also the chief in charge of Zimdollar, an Afrikaans cult newspaper. He is the founding father of Die Wasgoedlyn.

A few years ago Riku Lätti started recording many different artists all around South Africa. Wherever he went he took his recording equipment with and before he knew it artists started featuring on each other's tracks, collaborating and performing together, and so Die Wasgoedlyn started and Die Wasgoedlyn CD was released in 2015. Die Wasgoedlyn (The Washing Line) is a concept centering around Afrikaans musicians telling and singing their stories in their natural habitat: at their homes, around braais, with friends. These informal gatherings are recorded by Riku Lätti with his mobile studio set up ensuring that the music is not overproduced in a studio giving a sense of the real and the unpretentious. The name, Die Wasgoedlyn (The Washing Line), was chosen for two reasons. The first being that a washing line (in literal terms) is not usually a place where you would take your guests. It is usually in your backyard where things are a lot less presentable than the front (street view) of your house. In the same vain Die Wasgoedlyn attempts to unearth these raw performances of artists in a space (mentally and physically) that they take comfort in in which they do not have to pretend. The second reason is that on a washing line you'll find a large variety of items, from work shirts to church blouses, patched socks, vest with holes in it, underwear from Jockey, petticoats, etc. Die Wasgoedlyn is as much about putting the artist in their most natural surrounding as it is about surrounding them with other artists enabling the somewhat mystical bond between creatives to flourish resulting in instinctive collaborations. In 2014 Riku Lätti collaborated with Kilroy Was Here! Productions (Charl J. Naudé and Gideon Breytenbach) in attempts to turn Die Wasgoedlyn into a TV series with the same concept. The first season will feature approximately twenty artists including Lochner de Kock, Ryno Velvet, Willim Welsyn, Frazer Barry, Tribal Echo, Piet Botha, Jacques "Jake Gunn" Groenewald, Dana Snyman, Gert Vlok Nel, Jannie du Toit, C. Johan Bakkes, Churchill Naude, Laurinda Hofmeyr, Andre van Rensburg, Rian Malan, Dozi, Leila Groenewald, Mervin Williams, Adries Bezuidenhout, Fran Veda (Bonsai), Charles J. Fourie, Andra, Gerald Clark, Mauritz Lotz, Les Javan, Riku Lätti, Bacchus Nel, Loit Sôls, Francois van Coke (Van Coke Kartel), etc.

In 2022 Gideon Breytenbach and Riku Lätti co directed and produced the film The Voice behind the Wall which won the Cannes Film Award 2023 for Best African Film. The film also won the Angeles Film Festival Award for Best Feature Documentary 2022. The Voice Behind The Wall is a conscientious examination of the Afrikaans music industry and the racial imbalances that still persist almost 30 years since the abolishment of Apartheid. Despite the fact that the Afrikaans language was used to champion white supremacy in a system of institutionalized racial segregation known as Apartheid, its origins lay within the brown communities of Southern Africa. This documentary exposes the cultural appropriation of Afrikaans by the white elite and delves into the disastrous state of the post Apartheid Afrikaans music industry, where the erasure of brown contributions to the Afrikaans culture is still perpetuated. In this film Churchil Naudé, exceptional poet and rapper, stands as a surrogate for a whole community of ignored artists, whose voices are now oppressed by the very same media industry that was guilty of using its powerful platform to further the white cause during one of the world's worst crimes against humanity. These voices, a whole community of voices behind the wall.

In 2022 Riku formed the band Die Kaappunters with drummer Jean Tunes Marais, bassist Mark Ellis, guitarist Willem Möller (Die Gereformeerde Blues Band), Jackie Lätti and vocals and the rapper Churchil Naudé. Their first release was their EP Ons het so pas begin in September 2022.