JOHAN ANDERS BÆR
Máhkarávju
Dat DATCD-12 (1992)

SEPPO PAAKUNAINEN, NILS-ASLAK VALKEAPÄÄ
Sámi Luondo, Gollerisku
Dat DATCD-11 (1992)

SEPPO PAAKUNAINEN, NILS-ASLAK VALKEAPÄÄ
Sápmi Lottázan
Dat DATCD-13/1,2 (1992)

ANGELIN TYTÖT
Dolla
Mipu MIPUCD 102 (1992)

SIRMAKKA
Sirmakka
Mipu MIPUCD 101 (1992)

It's probably true to say that until the major-label release of Mari Boine Persen's Gula Gula the rest of the world had little knowledge of the Sámi people, calling them Lapps and viewing them as some kind of Inuit tribe who kept reindeer and looked after Santa Claus; a sort of living trolls. Perhaps the borders of knowledge haven't exactly rolled back, but at least some people outside Sámiland, which has no national borders and extends across those of Norway, Sweden and Finland, are now more aware than that.
     Mari Boine's music derives the from the style of Sámi yoiking, which to those who haven't heard it could be described as a sounding a bit like a field holler. The majority of yoiks are about named individual people; some describe animals or landscapes.
Johan Anders Bær's Máhkarávju album comprises 36 person yoiks, in which he is accompanied only by the natural sounds of a gannet colony.
     Saxophonist Seppo "Baron" Paakunainen is a Finn, a member of the long-established band Karelia (which also includes the influential kantele player Matti Kontio). Karelia is involved in Paakunainen's Sámi Luondo, Gollerisku, which comprises two pieces of music, the title item and Sápmi Lottázan, which are respectively described as "based on the yoik-melodies of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää with symphony orchestra, improvising instrumental group and two solo yoikers with solo saxophone", a four-movement piece first performed in 1982 which was inspired by Dvorák's New World Symphony, featuring Valkeapää and the above-mentioned Johan Anders Bær, and "a suite for symphony orchestra, improvising group and a yoik soloist with new yoik melodies and poems by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää", which has three sections - Cakca (autumn), Gidda (spring) and Eallin (life). The double CD Sápmi Lottázan is a compilation of three vinyl releases from 1978 and 1982: Sámi Eatnan Duoddariid and Davás ja Geassái, which both feature Valkeapää with jazz/world-ethnic instrumentation. Davás ja Geassái involves a second yoiker, Ingor Ántte Áilu Gaup, and the third part of the compilation is an album of field recordings of the two singers.
     Angelin Tytöt is a trio of young Sámi women, Ursula and Tuuni Länsman and Ulla Pirttijärvi, from the village of Inari in the Finnish part of Sápmi. They sing traditional and new yoiks in unison and harmony, with occasional accompaniment, largely on the skin drums sometimes associated with shamanism. Some of their new music is what are described as "yoik songs"; in these it's possible to hear slight connections with the culturally very different music of the Finnish group Värttinä, whose Sari Kaasinen produced this album.
     She also produced, and is responsible for some of the material on the debut album by Sirmakka (the name means "accordion"). This is Finnish, not Sámi music. The singing and instrumental group, largely teenaged and 18 or so strong, comes from the Finnish village of Rääkkylä in Karelia, which is the culturally and to some extent linguistically distinct region running along Finland's eastern border, partly in Russia. Sirmakka draws on Karelian and Ingrian music; similarities with the musical ideas of Värttinä are apparent, not surprisingly given the involvement of Värttinä members Sari and Mari Kaasinen.


© 1993 Andrew Cronshaw