Category:
World

My casual interest in things Sami was initially piqued when Finnish acquaintance of mine described the Sami to me as a bunch of reindeer herding freaks. Shortly after this remark, this album appeared in the local giveaway newspaper as their album of the week. Curiosity was now doubly piqued and so I set about trying to find out what the album was like. Now finding a torrent was difficult, but I managed it eventually and used the tracks downloaded to test my opinion of the music put out by these reindeer herding freaks. Could a musical style intended for, let's face it, yodelling over long distances, be reconciled with modern instruments in a modern format?

 

The first thing I have to note is that while the people behind this are Sami, they are Norwegian Sami rather than Finnish Sami. The second thing to note is that the musical style of the Sami people is known as Yoik, a style of folk music which is unique to the Sami. However, it has been kind of modernised and comes with an accompaniment of drums and other percussive instruments, as well as the occasional guitar to add to the traditional flute and voice of traditional yoik. The third thing is that I have read a lot of shit about this album. Far too often, overpaid and under-informed hacks writing for newspapers pick on something obscure or different in order to seem hip. That baggage needs to be unloaded before anyone can gain a proper appreciation of this album. (Surely anyone who has any understanding of music in the twenty-first century will know to avoid the fatuous opinions of the self-appointed musical gurus in GQ or the NME).

 

For a start, just because these guys are Scandinavian does not mean they either influence or have been influenced by Sigur Ros. So we can discontinue that line of thinking for one. This is pure and simple folk music with a modern twist - so we can also discount comparisons with that harp-playing freak Joanna Newsom as well. This is music which is rooted in its environment. The style of vocals will carry a long distance over cold expanses of ice and snow. It is evocative of that environment too and carries with it mental images of the wasteland as described. Beautiful yes. Conventional no. Appealing to the modern ear? Well therein is the $64 million question.

 

The vocals take some getting used to, but once you do, there is a strange beauty to the sounds which are, to me as probably to most who will listen to this, unintelligible with their deliberately lilting melodies and simple harmonies. Mun ja Mun (which apparently means I and I - wake up and take note, Rastas) is probably the highlight track. But then Dolgematki has a rhythm to it which will make anyone sit up and listen closely to the music.

 

In the end, that is the essence of this album - the combination of a unique vocal style, both in delivery and repetition, and some quite interesting rhythmic patterns. That is what makes this unique. Whether this is unique to Adjagas the band or is common to the wider musical genre is something I cannot answer. However, I will admit this takes some getting used to but in the more you listen to it, the more hypnotic, even addictive it becomes. Perhaps the strangest release of 2005 (or re-release of 2007), I can recommend this to the patient and open-minded music fan.