Kebnekajse
'Tonkraft' (Swedish National Radio)
Stockholm, Sweden
November 12th 1972
I shared something by this Swedish outfit some time ago.
This one is from their early period
when they spelt their name Kebnekaise (as in the mountain)
I decided to stick with Kebnekajse to keep the tags simple.
Hope I have the track titles correct. My Swedish is very poor!
A remastered FM sourced recording.
Sounds OK.
Hard to describe them.
I guess they fall into the RIO catagory.
Jammy/groove stuff with a slice of Swedish folk music.
I really like what they do.
regards
Titus
01 St.John
02 Polska från Härjedalen
03 Barkbrödslåten
04 Kosterlåge
05 I Dont Know Where I Am, I Must Be Dreaming
06 Sockerrör
07 Commanche Spring
08 Björnbår
09 Skånklåten
Thanks for posting, Titus! This i got to hear. They seemed to be everywere back in the day and "Barkbrödslåten" ("The bark bread tune" if you will) was the track every swedish wannabee progrocker guitarist trained on. An old traditional folk tune as far as i know. As for the titles you got them perfectly right except for a few small details - track 4 should spell "Kosterläge" and i think that aims at some fishing village at the Koster islands off the southern coastline of Sweden. Track 8 should spell "Björnbär" (pronounced something like "beyurnbear" - well, just about...), it means blackberry. Track 9 should spell "Skänklåten" and to my knowledge that should translate to "The gift song", a tune written for a certain person. The alternative would be including furniture as the word "skänk" means either to give or it means furniture - a sideboard :D. Come to think of it, you might want to have a go at their slow take on a true classic called "Hårgalåten" ("The Hårga tune") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eJWq2_HnaE that harks from the landscape of Hälsingland and this tune is originally intended to be played very fast and aggressive on violin, sort of the heavy metal of its day, as it comes with a tall folklore tale tied to it - the story goes that there once came along a mystic fiddler who played such hypnotizing music that young villagers followed him to the Hårga mountain where he kept them dancing for so long that people who came to watch saw nothing but skeletons dancing around on the mountain... The fiddler was of course the Devil, it turned out. A perfect yarn to scare more God fearing youngsters from going out dancing and having fun at a time when conservative priests held the fiddle to be the Devils instrument and to this day that part of Sweden has a special reputation for... well, badassness i´d say, i´ve met a lot of headstrong people there, in a positive way but it goes both ways (well, that was then and now that could sadly be said for many places). My guess is that whoever wrote the tune rather was out to stick it to them, like i said it must have sounded like heavy metal rock at the time.
ReplyDeleteThat is just the kind of info I like! Thanks, The trad stuff is a mystery to me. It's a bit like Rainbow doing 16th Century Greensleeves. With it's nod to the original tune (allegedly written by Henry VIII) Something you grow up knowing. Every country has them I'm sure.
DeleteGlad to be able to shed some light on it. I might add that "Hårga" in "Hårga mountain"/"Hårgaberget" should be read and pronounced as "Horga", kind of like some place in Game of Thrones ;). Come to think of it, maybe the tale of the Hårga dance is true in some aspect, like people got shitfaced drunk or took some "magic" mushrooms and actually danced themselves into a crazy trance-like state way back when like some prehistoric rave party :D. It´s been said that the scandinavian vikings of the iron age chewed on poisionous mushrooms to get a kick and a drug addict i use to bump into now and then at a job i had before told me from the top of his head about his obviously deep knowledge of which mushrooms in the swedish forrests are hallucinogenic taken in moderation and which are just plain poisonous and potentially lethal. Not that i would try any of them anyway (no-one should, so kids - just don´t try it!), but it goes to show that you can learn something from almost anybody, good or bad.
ReplyDeleteI looked up Hårga so have an idea. I also see there is a real place with that name. Thanks a lot for your comments. We are all addicts, good or bad :) I am pretty clued up on 'shrooms myself LOL
DeleteHaha... yeah, if nothing else us nerds... no, enthusiasts are all addicts to music :). As for the mushrooms, magic or not they are at least very mystic i have come to know thru later-day revelations of the underground life of fungus. I guess you´ve already learned about how the mushrooms are just the antennas of enormous meshes of fungal mycelium that communicates via chemical signals with other such parties (i guess ”individuals” would not be the right term... i hope not, that would point somewhere in the direction of the sci-fi movie ”Day of the Triffids” ;D) and also seems to be able to interact with trees in that way. Later-day research seems to have discovered that these networks even can convey small amounts of chemicals that the trees have low supplys of, but i digress. As for the chemicals, psilocybin is what some people has been chasing since at least 6-7000 years B.C. i was told yesterday by one of those pop-sci radio broadcasts (well, it´s the season for go hunting for mushrooms, the nutritional kind if one´s not inclined for the recreational stuff). But i was intending to say was that Youtube noticed me about what sounds to me as the studio version of ”Skänklåten” in the old Tonkraft radio show. You may have already heard it, but if not.,.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d__e8O_Vkco Anyway, this more polished piece is far closer to the original style of the tune (at least the interpretations that has lived on through tradition) so it´s musically more interesting and more progressive while retaining the original base line and what-nots as well as keeping closer to the original melody, less of a bluesy interpretation even if that´s got its own charm. Another thing of interest is the title ”Skänklåt från Rättvik” - that´s a rather small but well renowned village in the heartland of the Dalecarlia region – beyound the tourist information, the real name is Dalarna, which translates to ”The Valleys” that is what makes up much of the landscape and adds a whole lot of its environmental character. The other mental character is in a positive meaning added by the population :) and what can be said for the good (and the bad) people of Hälsingland (what i said about Hårgalåten...) can be said about Dalarna too. Someone once said that you can hear fiddle music from behind every shrub and bush there in the summertime, and it kind of sums it up. Although having some of my roots in that region and having socialized with some nice guys from around there over the years, i don´t know much about swedish prog rock (which btw is much more DIY than british) but Rättvik is at least the birthplace of the multi-talented singer/entertainer/actor Björn Skifs which fronted the more mainstream 70´s rock band Blue Swede (Blåblus at home) that topped Billboard in the USA back in the day with their caveman take :D on ”Hooked on a feeling” that somehow surpassed Lee Dorsey´s original recording. No, i have no explanation on that, but i assure you that mr. Skifs is by all standards a great artist if we disregard the intro of that cover version. Swedish Channel 4 is about to air a big new career spanning TV show with and about him soon, that says something.
Hmmm,,, guess i should leave out the novelty rock group Svenne Rubins which are the second most well-known outfit from that area... or... Ah, it´s not much a progression from basic rock´n´roll but you might enjoy this tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGh6YwmWBvE as much as i do. And the lyric is quite hilarious if you can understand it. As for the title, it too needs some explanation; a moped is just a moped, a bike with a small engine, but Eternit is what translates to plasterboard – a virtually indestructable plate that was very common in older times to make wooden house facades maintenance free until it was realized that they kept moist from letting out of the walls and people who made the plates got cancer from mixing the Asbestos. Still, as long as you leave them be your safe, but leave it to pro´s to remove and dispose of them. The plasterboard, i mean... not the music, This tune was originally written for a short TV documentary of a moped club aimed at cruising dirt roads looking for houses covered in said plating, there you have it. Trying to wrap this filibustering up i can say that the band Svenne Rubins http://svennerubins.nu/ is a hoot to experience on stage, anytime, although they´ve been like most other musicians been hibernating under the Corona pandemic up until lately (latest album... been a while longer). I remember one had to watch out for the lead singer Lars Wanfors´s wooden clogs rocketing about as i recall him unintentionally loosing one to the public when dancing too wildly on stage one of the times i was lucky to catch them live, very alive. Hopefully the chance will come again if the Corona doesn´t make a comeback too. Btw two, singer L. Wanfors has reportedly been playing some mean fuzz guitar on stage with the more well-known act Sabaton at one time or maybe more, a former workmate and metalhead once told me. And good, too.
ReplyDeleteOh sh...x-p - Wait! Scratch Rättvik as the starting point for Skifs and Svenne Rubins - my bad, it´s the village of Vansbro, what was i thinking... i´ve driven past the turning a few times so i ought to remember but no. But it´s still the same region and still great fun to listen to (as for Björn Skifs, he has made lots of good music with english lyrics as well as the swedish-lingual stuff), My apologies. I hope i´m making up for it by posting proof of that there really has been a small cooperation between Svenne and Sabaton, although i didn´t find no guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWiIIAFO7o - Sabaton studio recording with guest lead vocalist "Svenne Rubin" (solo) - original release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARLa7u5ZTu8
ReplyDeleteThis humouros song, about a school boy feeling he´s held back in the football court due to the headmasters son always being favored, in its original shape found its way to the top of swedish public radio´s top 10 chart "Svensktoppen" and to the hearts of many swedes, remaining there as kind of a national anthem when it comes to footballing.
Wow, a wealth of information. Thanks. I checked out the links, I have the Kebnekasie album but would not have known which version had the more traditional approach. I guess Långa bollar på Bengt is like Three Lions on a Shirt for England supporters, Do fans sing it at games?
DeleteYou´re welcome. :) Hmm,,, Three Lions... don´t know that one, but well yes, Långa Bollar gets shouted around still once in a while at football games. And at rocker car cruise nights (from inside the cars) :D, i think that´s more often these days. As for the band, i´d say they´re kind of Swedens equivalent to Madness, all about good fun and very sustainable as they´ve never been in sync with the trends. Taking a lot of inspiration from everyday absurdities and sometimes annoyances - imagine writing a song about a guy cursing the thief that stole a huge pile of fire wood he painstakingly chopped, counting all the work done and wondering who he is while warming himself with a hard drink - in translation the title goes "You warm yourself with my wood" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5SclCjknho).
ReplyDeleteit sounds very trad as opposed to pop
ReplyDeleteYes, kind of the other side of the do-it-yourself-attitude spectrum that gave birth to the swedish prog scene. In a way, they tend to celebrate older kinds of music that was the mainstream before jazz, rock and modern pop became the big things. You can even find traces of a 19th-into.early-20th century style that was commonly called "skillingtryck", referring to that it was spread as sheet music sold at the price of a swedish shilling a piece (no, we have long since reformed the monetary system and dropped that coin, if the politicians have their way there soon won´t be any physical money at all but us traditionalist regret that) and played anywhere that someone was in posession of a fiddle, an accordion or at least could sing fairly well. The lyrics often told a sad story and so the story of the lost firewood fits right into that tradition but with a tongue-in-cheek take on it. In a way it kind of follows the swedish prog if you take into consideration that the swedish prog musicians of the 70s just rarely put humour into their lyrics (the dead serious and often very politically focused attitude is often considered the main reason that the scene faded out) as opposed to the folk musicians of old. By the way, i´ve noticed that by late it has evolved sort of not maybe a second wave of swedish prog, but at least an undercurrent of younger musicians that seem to take inspiration from the original concept of the early movement, that´s interesting. I´ve seen a few even present their works as prog, which is kind of bold considering the associations of boring geeks with more interest in using music as a vehicle for grandstanding rather than breaking new grounds in music that has tarnished the reputation of the term progg (with two g´s) in Sweden. Like Band Aid without the musical talent, if that´s not a too cynical way to put it but i think you catch my drift.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in other cultures/traditions. Something you can't google...you need to have lived it. It leads to misunderstanding. For instance: if you said in English "pot calling the kettle black" then I don't really want a direct translation word for word. What I really want is the equivalent saying in another language/country, Frau Luxor tells me that the toad in Catweazle was called Esmerelda in the German dubbed version she grew up with. That is feeble because it's English name, Touchwood, is a direct reference to tradition...aq form of blessing/protection from evil. Very trad/pagan. There must be a better German alternative that retains the spirit of the toad's name. Esmerelda just doesn't cut it!
DeleteCome to think of it, in the eighties there was a slight emergence of real progress when a few musicians of the prog scene (Mikael Wiehe of Hoola Bandoola Band was the one having most success, search Youtube for the song "Flickan och kråkan") had a go at using synthezisers in the studio, which wasn´t all that welcome with many of the diehards but looking back there actually was a small but adventurous swedish movement back in the 50s-60s experimenting with electronics and cut-and-pasted recording tapes, more like the british prog movement and the Kraut Rock movement(s) in the then two sides Germany. One of the big names of the day was Ralph Lundsten who i recall made some sort of monotonous, dark creepy stuff with gravely vocoder sounds back in the late sixties but moved on making beautiful dreamlike symphonies in his electronic studio Andromeda in the seventies. He never made much of a name for himself in swedish mainstream music but i´m quite sure he has inspired people like ABBA´s house technician Michael B. Tretow (who himself made a few novelty pop rock tunes that hit the local charts in Sweden) and Lundsten composed the signature jingle for Radio Sweden (public service radio SR´s international english speaking channel) that was used for decades.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot to take in. Interesting that you talk of electronic music. This has been a subject here since we read a Kraftwerk biography recently. The origins go back a long way. Almost as far as recorded sound, It's easy to think of Kraftwerk as pioneers. They undoubtably were, but it is funny to think how bowled over people were by Autobahn, forgetting that the BBC already had the most sophisticated sound workshop as in the 1963 theme music for Dr. Who: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75V4ClJZME4
ReplyDeleteWait... i had a look on the ´tube and got flooded with all the remakes... Not very often a song lasts this long in the public mind here. This is the original album version by Mikael Wiehe, hope you like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wTTODksGtA - the symbol-packed lyric is sadly just as up-to-date with the current state of the present day as it was then, thanks to leaving out any direct references, but in short he sings about sitting there reading a newspaper when he sees a picture of a girl holding a gunshot wounded crow and falls into a daydream about that girl running through the woods, hoping to save the injured crow and he realizes that his dark daydream was a projection of his own fears.
ReplyDeleteAgain, very interesting. I wish I understood the words better. And I appreciate being directed to "the original album version". Slightly off topic, but how do you view the countries neighbouring Sweden? What we might (lazily) refer to as Scandiwegian. Norway. denmark etc. I realise there is no definitive answer and you may hold views that differ from others. Just wondering.
Delete(Backtracking here from the later post... timewarp? ;)) Hmmm... that´s an interesting but complicated question to answer, but i´ll try. To me, it´s a kaleidoscope of social and cultural patterns that intersect over time and spaces across the North Calotte and down to north Germany in the past centuries. A number of reasons such as famines, wars and the harsh environment itself has made for people moving back and forth, making for both social interaction and sometimes clashes, so it´s not just one culture or a ”multiculture” to use a simplifying buzzword but more of a scattering of various local cultures that somehow has for the most part managed to cooperate for the common good, As an example, there are many forrestal areas nearby small rural towns and villages that are referred to as ”finnmark” in name, and although there are hardly any traces of the small and simple wooden houses called ”finnpörten” where finnish forestry workers stayed, but those were most all taken down and broken up for other uses when the people left after most of the trees had been turned into timber for building large houses in the emerging towns following early industrialization, ships for the royal fleet and to no small extent export to the UK for the same uses in the same fashion, in my area there is a stretch along the river going by where many norwegians came to settle back in... i think it was the 18th or 19th century but i´d have to check that to use it in a sharp presentation. Anyway, many of todays villagers ancestry harks back to them and you can trace it in the local dialect and the names of people and places. The same thing with other places where finnish migrants resided, or small communities of Roma people and Travellers for that part. The pattern is about the same for Dalarna (i myself have a line of ancestry from there because of moving for work), which has about the same natural conditions but industrialization didn´t get as big there as along the northern coastline, and so the cultural effect didn´t hit the same way. The most common denominator across the north i think must be the melancholy that colours most peoples mindsets in the long and often harsh winters up here, across the parallell so that could explain why the danes got ”hygge” and we got Nordic Noir novels, haha... Well, and if you compare the music i´ve tipped you off about in this thread to the easygoing, life loving stuff of the iconic rock group Gasoline i think that tells it all, even if they could dig into the deeper emotions too. Just listen closely to the lyrics of ”This is my life” (59) This Is My Life - YouTube .
DeleteForgot to mention the Sami element - and that is still in this day not a easy subject to some people i have to say. If you´d like to dig into the complicated background that swedish politicians not even now wants to admit being problematic, i suggest you look up a recent movie called "Sameblod", there is propably english subs to be had with it. Anyway, i have had interesting talks with a few people that has partial ancestry from swedish Lappland or Sapmi as the native name of the whole region is, and some old locals who remembered that back in the 1920s there was still an annual occasion that samis rented housing and pasture for their reindeer just outside of my hometown when the winter was too hard up in the Södra Lappmarken i believe was said they came down from. They used to put up a open air market for a weekend or so when the weather admitted on the frozen lake close to the river selling crafts and reindeer skins and dried meat, but that all ended for good with the outbreak of WW II as i understood it. Besides, should you ever come across the prepared reindeer meat known as Suovas (renskav in swedish), be sure to try it - absolutely delicious. The best comparison would be Kebab or Gyros but it is not made from mincemeat but thinly sliced pieces and has much more taste. Digging into details, stuff like Souvas seems to be the precursor to mincemeat in the days before the rise of modern kitchen equipment. Oh, now i totally derailed my train of thought again, oh well... :D
DeleteHmmm... just one more for now, before i forget and perhaps to prove a point - if you haven´t discovered danish metal rockers Volbeat, check them out. If there is a Hell and they´ve got at least some "hygge" there, this must be what plays on the jukebox, haha ;D. I can´t hear them on the radio at work because the only commercial rock channel in my area is Classic Rock FM and they draw the line at the millenium, so my phone battery needs a lot of recharging, sigh... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDPQL3N0qQM
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmXcikuIi8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrUDwBZkwsA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrUDwBZkwsA
Uh, Kraftwerk, yes. I recall i once heard a voman on a radio talk show making a short recollection of that she was a kid, her parents were throwing a home party and it was all fun until her dad got the idea to put on one of his Kraftwerk records (my guess it must have been "The Man Machine" :D, dark and dreery and my favourite of their catalogue) - as she put it, "then the guests all got anxious and went home"... xD I have read some about the BBC studio and it must have among the most advanced sound studios of its day. I´ve come across some collections by Delia Darbyshire and other audial wizards residing there and although it´s mostly the opposite of easy listening it´s undeniably groundbreaking and surely most modern music wouldn´t have sounded the same if this hadn´t been made. From the top of my head i come to think of a few other likeminded sound inventors as Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan of Philips Studios in the Netherlands (for examples, look for "Song of The Second Moon" on Youtube). And how about pop producer Joe Meek and his almost magical at-home recording studio built from surplus radar equipment... The post-war period must have been a whirlpool of creative thoughts on so many levels in so many fields, and i didn´t get the chance to hang on to it until the only four episodes of West German sci-fi show Raumpatruille Orion ran on Swedens only TV channel about a year after its production with some two more until the real moon landing. I´m kind of envious of the boomers if be it only in that aspect of experiencing that era to the full extent... :D
ReplyDeleteCan't believe you mentioned Raumpatruille Orion. I downloaded that a while back (was hard to find). Saw refs to it, and agian, it was not something I knew about
DeleteWow. I have to get back on your previous comments, sure deserves well thought out answers to at least the possible extent ;) (Orion, i even found swedish subs for that online, fascinating. It´s been said that show inspired Gene Roddenberry to make Star Trek. Ah, yes... Catweazel, one of my absolute TV faves as a kid and his name remained unchanged - as for the cat being originally called Touchwood i don´t remember what she was overdubbed as, but i think i get that; in swedish we say "Ta i trä" = "Touch wood" as a verb and it has the same use here; like americans we the superstitious :D knock on wood before saying something that could theoretically pee off the powers that might be (oh, i have a certain respect for real just in case, the stories i could tell of unexplainable happenings but then again people into the occult say that if you talk about such, it doesn´t mean you will have bad luck but if you have any sensitivity for such you will lose it). Nah, that´s just superstition... or is it now? ;)
DeleteIt was a toad not a cat! :) Thanks for all your info/thoughts. I will look into your links etc. at the weekend when I have more time. Tiger Moth Tales (Pete Jones) - Hygge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMvj4jfQYU4
ReplyDeleteRight, memory failed me on that but now i recall :). Yeah, please do go for a surf. Btw, Uloz is a fun place to visit... ;) Thanks for tipping me off on Tiger Moth, i´ve got to have a listen to more of their stuff, reminds me of Fish-era Marillion :).
ReplyDeleteI have heard of Gasolin but was not familiar with their music.
DeleteThe Danish Beatles I read! (*see below)
I knew of the Sami but have read more now and it is very interesting.
They are another example of how indigenous people get screwed.
Australia and the US spring to mind.
I'd have loved to go to one of those frozen lake markets.
I read that Jaco Pastorius and Joni Mitchell have Sami ancestry.
Volbeat*...LOL I am getting the impression you are unaware
of how much the UK/US music industry has controlled the world.
Volbeat may be a 'classic' band to you but I've never heard of them.
Foreign bands are frozen out.
The net has helped to change that (certainly for me)
Don't like Volbeat much, as I'm not really
a 'modern' metal-head but appreciate hearing them.
Yeah, i guess Gasolin could be worthy of the comparison even if i´d rather make it related to the Rolling Stones, but anyhow put they was one of the best rock bands to come out of Scandinavia at their time, bar none. You might want to check out lead singer Kim Larsen´s (RIP) solo records too, there´s a real good concert video floating around on YT somewhere, i think it was taped in Copenhagen in his last year and propably his last public performance but nothing gives that impression besides the old-guy downtempo feel of it which could be explained as danish "hygge" just as well. Anyway, he also played in another band after Gasolin called Kim Larsen´s Jungle Dreams but i never really felt like that was up to par with his old band. But that´s just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOh, i´m very well aware ever since kindergarten of the world domination of anglo-american music, trust me on that one... And i love it for the most part (well, i didn´t care much for disco even in its heyday, got to admit, but how many would openly admit today they was into that shit anyway, haha...). When it comes to Volbeat however, i suggest you check out the top of this YT playlist – i thought you in turn knew the undergrowth nature of the heavy rock scene,,, ;-D Playing Rock Am Ring, Belgium, Anaheim (USA) and Brazil, i´d say they´re not just scandinavian local heroes. And no, i´m not much into heavy metal of late-model styles with a few exceptions but more into tradition (mainly classic british bands like ´Purple, ´Sabbath... oh, can´t forget Steppenwolf... ah, most any good stuff pre-hair metal...). Have to say (Till) Lindemann´s album in english has been on heavy rotation in my garage since it release, that may say something (also about my dark sence of hunour in lyrics :-D). Now, what´s he´s collaborators name, that guy from In Flames? Best swedish-related metal record in ages IMO.
On the topic of the Sami people and culture, i think you nailed it - agreed, they got totally screwed even if it seems to have been "degrees in Hell" as we say in Sweden when measuring bad things and situations. Fact is, way back in time like i think Gustav Eriksson Wasa was king then (me and time lines...) there was taken a position to treat the north of the land as a domestic colony – rather many of us residing here think there hasn´t been much progress in that policy... :-p Well, opression of the sami people has varied over time and borders and to some extent that is not all a thing of the past when today new mines and lately also wind farms are prospected by states and big business and roaming grounds of the reindeer are taken over as usual in the name of the greater good – same shit, different day... I´m not deeply versed in the present conflicts at hand between the Sapmi nation (some would argue that it doesn´t exist as it´s never been officially recognized but still there is a wide area that spans from the Atlantic coast of Norway across Finland into Russia, i´d say that´s a nation of sorts and there is a officially recognized sami parlament but it has no power but only a representative and advisary role) and the respective recognized nations in which sami villages resides, except for a small word feud around the town of Umeå about piggybacking on sami culture for its PR projects without giving much credit or space for sami artists, but even living a far bit south of what is considered Lappmarken i get wind now and then of small local disagreements up there between samis and the resident population of mainly swedish and finnish descent. It´s mostly personal verbal bitterness and/or legal controversy between people over who gets part of hunting and fishing rights (regulated by the authorities and some say the samis get favourized due to their status as indigenous people in those areas, some hardliners even claim that there ought not to be any special rights of freedom for samis and then there are age old conflicts between clans of samis that are either reindeer keepers since who knows when and the so-called ”Jakt & Fiske-samerna”, hunting and fishing samis that relies on common law to keep the right to do just that for themselves, it´s not all black and white, for sure. At the same time sami artists and/or activists are claiming stakes in swedish mainstream culture and that is becoming on a bit stronger every year. A couple of litterally loud mouthed (in a positive way) names comes to mind from to the top of my head – sami singers Sofia Jannock and Maxida Märak both mix sami tradition and a heavy dose of modern influences and technology, not what i´d play in the car but check them out.
ReplyDeleteI've already deleved into sami-pop. You're comments are very good and I appreciate them. Thank you. I'm usually smashed though so give me some time to compodse an appropriate response.
DeleteWell, that comes as no surprise ;-) since following your broadminded blog of many musical tastes for a couple of years. Thank you for your kind words, Titus. Like Mark Twain once said (something like), if i had more time i´d condense my notes but smashed through seems like a good term for the situation, so i fully understand any delays in response (not all would take the time) and appreciate it when it comes. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm not into Rammstein/Lindemann
Deletealthough I checked out a few songs from his solo albums.
I have previously looked into the Sámi flag.
This from wiki:
The first official Sámi flag was recognized and inaugurated on 15 August 1986
by the 13th Nordic Sami Conference in Åre, Sweden.
The flag was the result of a competition sponsored by the newspaper Sámi Áigi
for which more than seventy suggestions were entered.
In the end, one new design was considered against the existing, unofficial flag
and came out winning. The design was submitted by the Coast Sámi artist Astrid Båhl
from Ivgubahta/Skibotn, in Tromssa/Troms county, Norway.
The basic structure of the first Sámi flag was retained,
but Båhl added the colour green, which is popular on many South Sámi gáktis.
These four colours have been known since then as "the Sámi (national) colours".
She also added a motif derived from a sun/moon symbol appearing on many shaman's drums.
While the drawings on shaman's drums were only made in red
(using an extract of the sacred alder tree), the motif on the flag uses
both blue and red — the first representing the moon, the latter representing the sun.
It features heavily in Sofia Jannock's video for 'This Is My Land'.
I listened to Maxida Märak – Lät du henne komma närmre as well.
Not crazy about either but interesting.
Well, the tongue-in-cheek doom-and-gloom attitude and, except for that first Lindemann album, a refusal of english lyrics kind of narrows the field of interest and makes it an aquired taste, also it becomes a bit repetetive and lacking a creative edge at times, but that solo album and the Rammstein "Rosenroth" album are keepers in my record collection, Different strokes for different folks, that´s all okay.
ReplyDeleteInteresting note about the sami flag, didn´t now much about the story of controverses leading up to the current design, but it kind of seems reasonable with the partial fragmentations of the culture that comes with the society being divided into four national zones.
I´m not crazy either about Jannok´s and Märak´s works (could be just my hearing having a hard time with high pitched singing these days but maybe we´re just generally getting old and stuck in our opinions? ;-D) but like you say, interesting. At least in parts. Meanwhile in the mainstream: Umeå-based singer-songwriter Lisa Miskovsky has certainly made a space for herself in the public mind and did a fine performance together with Sofia Jannok on a swedish outdoors TV show this summer, pity i can´t find a clip of that on Youtube but she does well on her own too, always comes across as very cool. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lisa+miskovsky. Often with a ring or underlaying tone of traditional northern music stitched into her songs, bit of a personal favourite.
While on the subject, and returning to Dalarna/Dalecarlia: i have this CD "Älvdalens Elektriska" by Lena Willemark in my collection, more of a crossover but... well, kind of interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzQUzibQxo4&list=OLAK5uy_ny51t-cpt9Z89CwhEAbwzlcl0hm1vieTg - can´t seem to find a translation for the word "kulning" but it originates in the ancient technique that swedish vomen (any other too?) used to call the cattle and sheep home, works over far spread pastures, of course. It´s doubtful that this style of music would ever get much of an international audience but she really made an impression with her take on Abba´s "Ring, ring", here presented in a swedish TVa show from 2008 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhFWLPx0V_k in a duet with swedish actor Anders Linder (a b household name in national kids television in the 70s and some later productions but he´s also done some serious roles) and backed by Ale Möller´s band. Unfortunally it seeems only haven got otherwise recorded on a limited edition various artist CD made to celebrate the starting year of some artist organisation, but i got my hands on a copy, very glad for that as it holds a lot of very special covers on old swedish melodies.
On topic: hadn´t seen this video of Kebnekajse posted in 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25wTy_Quipk - Youtube is truly a treasure trove nowadays.