Sunday, July 24, 2016

July 24 - Vuolgge Mu Mielde Bassivarrai (Come With Me To The Sacred Mountain)

May 26 1996 was a nice and warm Sunday night, and that was when I first met the music of Mari Boine head on. I had received a free ticket from Studentradioen i Bergen, and went with Johan Ludvig Brattås at least - but I also think Thomas Ekrene was there. The venue was USF - Røkeriet, formerly the smoker part of United Sardine Factory, which has been repurposed as a very interesting concert venue. I will admit to only remember bits and pieces of everything happening outside of the musical part, but I remember the music vividly.

Mari Boine Band was led by Mari Boine, a massive bundle of power and energy packed into a small body. She mixes Sami traditional music (often joik - pronounced yoik) with more modern rhithms solidly planted in rock. Her group of musicians also blew me away. She sang and used some Sami percussion, Roger Ludvigsen was a wizard on electric guitar, Gjermund Silseth kept the bottom rolling on his bass, Helge Nordbakken looked beyond drums on his percussive quest for rhythm, Carlos Quispe made flutes sound like I never heard them before (just listen to today's song), and Hege Rimestad played the violin and fiddle like a woman possessed at times. And that is what happened to me as well. Vuolgge Mu Mielde Bassivarrai has a hypnotic rhythm that just drags me deeper and deeper into it as I listen to it. And today it's your turn. The lyrics are in Sami, which means that I am as clueless as you will be as to what she is singing.


No comments: