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Written in fRoots issue 250, 2004
 

KRISTER STOOR
To Yoik Is To Live
Umeå Universitet UMUFCD-002 (2003)

This is the best CD there is to explain the nature and meaning of Sámi joik/yoik.
      Vocalised mainly by Stoor, with one contribution from Ánte Mikkel Gaup and an archive recording of Martin Nilsson, the joiks are punctuated by his speaking, in English, about them; the people and lives they come from, the way in which the joik is neither song nor story but is a recognition or remembering of another person’s identity and a linking together of individual histories. “We joik, therefore we remember, therefore we are”. Stoor’s speaking voice, and his joiking, have a warm musicality, and what he says is beautifully and concisely expressed. It’s a much more natural way to get the idea than reading a text would be, and there’s such a fine balance and flow of speaking and music that the whole thing becomes as musical a listen as any all-music album. And, to further dispel any sense of this being worthy rather than enjoyable, in amongst the short unaccompanied joiks are some accompanied in ways that really get inside the form. Featuring particularly the electric guitar of Hoven Droven and Ale Möller associate Lasse Sörlin, and some bass, fiddle, diatonic accordion or harmonium, they stand as notable examples of modern interpretations of joik.
      Stoor is a faculty member at the Sámi Studies department of the University of Umeå in northern Sweden, and the CD is available from there.


© 2003 Andrew Cronshaw


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