Mari Boine Review by Manika Vats-Fournier The Sami and Mari Boine Discography Mari Boine´s Band Links

16-Apr-2006: finally updating this page again, new CD "Iddjagiedas" release 2006-04-24 ...
19-Mar-2002: still waiting for release of "Eight Seasons", Mari Boine on tour in Germany May 2002 ...
10-Feb-2002: added 2 new albums to discography, some more links ...
11-Nov-2001: added "Remixed" to discography ...
21-Sep-2001: fixed additions to discography ...
20-Sep-2001: added links about Mari Boine's performance at the royal wedding in Oslo, 27-Aug-2001 ...
11-Jul-2001: added "Inn fra kulda" and some links ...(-;
13-Feb-2001: added further links and new(?) album ...(-;
01-May-2000: added further links ...;-)
30-May-1999: added links to VeDaKi, Mari Boine & VeDaKi tour dates, added some items to Discography ...
19-Apr-1999: added links to some concert reviews ...

From the frozen steppes of Norway to the warm, wooden floors of the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, Mari Boine, one of the most spellbinding and outspoken Norwegian musicians, has garnered international attention and acclaim. She will be performing music from her new album "Leahkastin" (Unfolding), on Sunday, Oct. 8.

Boine grew up in the small village of Gamehhisnjarga, past the Arctic Circle on the northern most tip of Norway. The Norwegians call the area Karasjok, but she knows it as Sami-land. The Sami people, an indigenous race related to North American Indians and Eskimo tribes, were colonized by the Christian Scandinavians. Part Sami herself, the first music Boine heard was the psalm singing of the "Laestadian" movement, a fundamentalist Christian movement which a large part of the Sami population follows. Boine's artistry is rooted in the Sami tradition and the folk music of Scandinavia's northern culture, which ranges through Norway, Finland and Sweden. Boine struggled to find a cultural identity and present it in her work. "I was bitter and full of what I regarded as righteous anger. I have been through every possible stage to reach where I am today. At school, we learned that Sami culture and the Sami language were worthless. They were not worth preserving. Believe me when I tell you that I was ashamed of being a Sami" As a contemporary composer, Boine encompasses many musical genres and cultures in her work. Her music is a blend of expressive styles: jazz, rock, joik -- the traditional Sami chant -- and other ethnic styles from South America and Africa. A diverse group of musicians, Boine's band members combine the sounds of bass, keyboards and guitars with the Sami and African drums, Indian flutes, the Peruvian charango (a small guitar) and an Arabic fiddle. Despite the global collection of instruments, the music is still solidly Norwegian and completely original.

Boine recounts being trapped between two different closed communities and ideologies. Raised in a strictly religious home, she says, "My father was a pious man. Dancing and singing with friends was absolutely out of the question. Girls were to be neither seen nor heard. That was the rule." Missionaries demonized pre-Christianity Sami musical traditions.

When Boine first began performing, she met with resistance from her own people. She attributes this to her open rebellion against her inferior status both as a member of the Sami people and as a woman.

Originally, her music was pure, pointed protest against the constant repression and missionary fervor. On several occasions, she challenged the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to deliver an apology to the Sami people on behalf of the Norwegian state.

When asked to perform at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Boine refused. "I don't want to be used as an exotic decoration. At an event like that, it could easily happen."

Commissioned by one of the major music festivals in Europe, Norway's "Vossajazz", Boine's fourth and latest album "Leahkastin" is not as much of a directed social commentary, but her voice and music are just as powerful. Boine received the equivalent of a Norwegian "Grammy" award for the album in February 1994.

Today, she represents both the Sami people and Norway all over the world. The majority of the Sami people regard her as one of their greatest ambassadors.

(original site)

The Sami, or Lapps, live in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, preserving their own language and a culture related to other arctic peoples. As the indigenous people of artic Scandinavia, their relations with the colonizers have often been problematic, although, following a political struggle in the early 1980s, originally focused on plans to combat a planned dam, their rights and way of life are now enshrined in the Norwegian constitution.

Central to Sami music is the joik, an improvised and highly personal style of singing in a sort of epigrammatic form. Often describing nature or animals, joik illustrates the close relationship that the Sami people have with the world around them. When Sami people sing joiks for each other they don´t applaud but simply sing a joik in return.

Contemporary Sami music has seen some dramatic developments over the past few years, with several artists forging an international reputation. Nils-Aslak Valkiapää from Finland performed the opening song at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. His recording break new ground in Sami music-making, incorporating diverse elements such as symphony orchestra, synthesizer and jazz/folk fusion with the help of the Finnish group Karelia. Angelin Tytöt from the village of Angeli in Finland are a trio (sometimes a duo) of young girls, joiking and singing with guitar and percussion.

It is Norway's Mari Boine (aka Mari Boine Persen), however, who has made the biggest impact outside Sami land with her modern electric band. This singer has been an articulate spokesperson for Sami culture, both in her music and in interviews. As she explained: "I used to think men oppressing women or governments oppressing people realized what they were doing and were just cynical. But then I realized that often they are unaware and are filled with fear. I fell I have to find my way to their hearts to let them know what they are doing. It's the only way to change things. That's why I feel my music is important."

"Our first relationship is to nature. You are part of nature, not the master of nature. This also gives us a strong sense of solidarity - you are about other people. Money is not important and power is not important. It's more your personality, the human being that is important."

Mari Boine's music is dominated by her strong and urgent voice, plus a few carefully selected instruments from people all over the world, notably the native South Americans, chosen in part due to their history of even harsher colonization. Most distinctive is her drum. She uses an African drum, but the combination of drum and voice goes back to ancient Sami culture and pre-Christian shamanism.

"The colonizers brought Christianity and told the Sami they had to forget their primitive religion - and music was part of that religion. A lot of people of my parent's generation don't accept the music, they say it's devil's music and what you sing when you're drunk - the colonizers also brought alcohol. When I started to use a drum some people got worried and said, 'Is she a Shaman?' So I decided I couldn't use a Sami drum."

"I think your voice is a mirror of your soul and how you feel inside. When I began I was singing pop songs and ballads and didn't sing from the heart. Over the last ten years I've been fighting this feeling of being inferior to Norwegian or western people and my voice got stronger as I decided I wouldn't let anyone oppress me and that I have a value as Sami. Western culture makes a distance between you and your body or heart. In Sami culture you think of everything as a whole."

Gula Gula (Hear the Voices of the Foremothers)

Hear the voices of the foremothers
Hear
They ask you why you let the earth become polluted
Poisoned
Exhausted
They remind you where you come from
Do you hear?
Again they want to remind you
That the earth is our mother
If we take her life
We die with her.

(Please let me know if you don´t consider these quotes as "fair use" and give me a chance to update the page.)

Discography

More detailed track lists for most of these albums are available from the freedb.org CD DataBase or its commercialized counterpart CDDB.com. They currently lists about 50 CDs with one or more track(s) by Mari Boine. See also the Nord-Norsk folkemusikksamling at the University of Oslo.

Mari Boine's Band

Mari Boine	voice, djembe
Gjermund Silset	bass, percussion
Hege Rimestad	violin
Helge A. Norbakken	percussion
Roger Ludvigsen	guitars
Carlos Zamata Quispe	flute, charango

In autumn 2000, she was on tour with several new musicians:
Roger Ludvigsen, Gunnar Augland, Svein Schultz and Richard Thomas

Links

Links are being appended at the end, hence the newest links can be found at the bottom of this list...

• Mari Boine Interview - from Folk Roots 1997 (mirror site)
• VeDaKi (Vershki Da Koreshki) and Mari Boine - a concert review
• VeDaKi Home Page - on tour with Mari Boine in July/August 1999
• Some native links - and fascinating images from the north of Norway by Elisabeth Monsen
• Mari Boine - some information on Mari Boine an the "Radiant Warmth" sampler by Antilles (1'07" real audio)
• Mari Boine - some information from the European Jazz Network
• Digelius Music - Scandinavian music mail order
• Karabok - bookshop in Karasjok with Sámi music
• Sámi Music - a brief introduction to traditional Sámi song and the modern music
• Sámi Links - collection of Sámi sites
• Mari Boine - concert announcement & a bit of her music (320kB AIFF)
• 21.07.1999 Mari Boine & VeDaKi in Kassel
• Mari Boine @ Yahoo! Norway
• Mari Boine & Band - somewhat odd "unofficial" home page
• Dagbladet: Mari Boine - Article: Norwegian / English
• VG: Mari Boine - tett på nett
• iMusic: Mari Boine
• ARTISTdirect: Mari Boine
• Mari Boine -- IHT: The Pop Star From Above the Arctic Circle
• Mari Boine at Riddu Riððu 2000 - with great pictures and new band
• Ectoguide: Mari Boine - from "The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music"
• Dagbladet: I slekt med Bob Marley - short interview about "Inn fra kulda" and future projects
• Mari Boine: Running Away (Beasadat Ja Báhtarat)
• Mari Boine Biography - on Yahoo
• Mari Boine - Inna Zhelannaya - Sergey Starostin - "Winter in Moscow" at Jaro
• NRK Bryllupsnytt - royal wedding in Oslo, 27-Aug-2001 with link to 45 kbit/s RealVideo of ceremony, incl. the some seconds of "Mitt hjerte alltid vanker" by Mari Boine at the very end
• NRK bryllup - musikalske innslageneJan Garbarek og Mari Boine
• NRK bryllup "[optree] skal også Mari Boine, som fremfører Mitt hjerte alltid vanker på samisk og trolig i samisk folkedrakt"
• New Nordic Folk- mailing list
• Nord-Norsk folkemusikksamling - collection of music from Northern Norway (incl. Sami) with detailed track lists (Universitetet i Oslo)
• Ajtte - Svenskt Fjäll- och Samemuseum, JOKKMOKK
• ??? - some old links using charset=windows-1257 ...
• Scandinavian Sources - music from the North of Europe
• Mark Clive-Lowe - remixes
• nettavisen - Bryllupsreklame for Boine
• mark de clive-lowe - melodius remixe 'Ale Ale Don' for universal norway
• some info on Mari Boine's background
• Norsk Musikkinformasjons nettavis
• Mari Boine i ny drakt - Universal Music: Mari Boine remix-CD (release 17-Sep-2001 / 01-Oct-2001) / new album with Bugge Wesseltoft soon
• Mari Boine @ music on photo
• Nacht der langen Schatten - Mari Boine Film by Claudia Willke, 2001, about "Night of Long Shadows - Mari Boine", shown at "Nordische Filmtage Lübeck 2001"
• Jazzecho: New releases Feb. 2002 (Germany) - listing "Mari Boine: 8 Seasons" (26.02.02)
• Plateåret 2002, Februar
- Mari Boine: "Eight Seasons" - Første studioalbum på tre og et halvt år
• Make me a channel of your peace/ The Nobel Peace Prize 100 years - further details about this album by Kirkelig Kulturverksted / JARO
• Review of "Mari Boine Remixed" by motion reviews
• Mari Boine on tour - May 2002 in Germany/Switzerland
• VUOLGGE MU MIELDE BASSIVÁRRÁI - COME WITH ME TO THE SACRED MOUNTAIN Norwegian short movie from 1996 by Mona J. Hoel, music/actress: Mari Boine
• Polare Eiswüsten Pressetext zu "Room of Worship"
• Hypnotic Grooves Eine Pressekritik zu: Mari Boine Band - Balvvosltjna / Room Of Worship
• Maters of Jazz Video (mari boine & illumination - gula gula chilluminati mix) as 240 kbit/s ASX/WMV [i.e. you have to pay your M$ tax first ...]
• Songs from cold seas - Samiland blues with Mari Boine Concert preview "MAGNETIC NORTH" Mari Boine & Buffy Sainte-Mari, June 1997, Toronto
• Nacht der langen Schatten - Mari Boine film about Mari Boine by Sonic Art Productions / Claudia Willke, 2001 (available as VHS, see also "Nordische Filmtage Lübeck 2001", above)
• Mari Boine »8 Seasons« Track list at Jazzecho with samples (RealAudio 40 kbit/s 1'30")
• Mari Boine at AMG - All Music Guide
• iMusic Community > Artist Forums > Mari Boine - last posting a year ago ...
• MARI BOINE - Musikalische Botschafterin aus der Arktis Radio Multikulti präsentiert live ...: Tränenpalast, Berlin 02.05.2002
• Polarlicht Heft 5 Mari Boine Konzert (Bericht?)
• LENKER TIL MUSIKKRESSURSER PÅ NETTET Oslo kommunes folkebibliotek - Musikkavdelingen
• Schwedler/Verweise/Musik with some Joik WAV samples (traditional, modern)
• RootsWorld Mari Boine Interview Looking to the future from the past
• Nordisk Råds musikpris 2003 til Mari Boine fra Norge (English)
• The Nordic Council Music Prize 2003 - Pictures of Mari Boine
• Various Artists, Nordic Nights BBC Late Junction
• Photos from Jazzland Sessions Oslo 2004 - Mari Boine as special guest...
• Mari Boine Bestillningsverk Telemarksfestivalen 2005 - to become the new CD peoject
• Festivalkomponist Telemarksvestivalen 2005 - voi voi
• bestillingsverket "vuoi vuoi mu" - En fri, samisk sangfugl
• Mari Boine and band at Folk Baltica 2006 German debut of CD "Vuoi, Vuoi Mu"
• MARI BOINE Iddjagiedas (In The Hand Of The Night) - CD release in Norway 2006-04-24
• Mari Boine and Terje Rypdal at Vossajazz 2006 - pictures from festivalfoto.no
• DONALD PRODUCTIONS - concert dates and news for 2005/2006
• Boines demoner - portrettet i Dagbladets helgmagasin
• Mari Boine at Music Information Centre Norway
• Mari Boine fanclub on myspace
• Mari Boine on Wikipedia
• Mari Boine on myspace
• Mari Boine - official hompage