adjágas

Adjágas is a group of Sami "yoikers" from Norway. I stumbled across this cd in Stadsbiblioteket here in Göteborg and it was very inspiring music. The tonality and voice quality of this group is a little different than the music familiar to western ears. This type of music uses the pentatonic scale which is different from the more popular heptatonic scale of popular Western music. It has a mournful quality to it, and even in songs of rejoice it sounds rather--- sad. Maybe this represents the repression of the Sami culture, similar to that of the Native American tribes.

If you cannot read these pictures, they read: "...Adjágas is a state between sleeping and waking. It is where you get in touch with issues and messages that are important to you. It is also said that the sami learned yoiking from the alda people that live in another world parallel to our own, in the Adjágas state of mind. Adjágas is a celebration of the ancient art of yoiking and a search for what the future will bring..."
This really is beautiful music that gave me a new respect for the Sami cultures here in Scandinavia. It also reminds me of traditional Korean 'pansori' music, which I also like to listen to from time to time. Here's another example of pansori.

For those of you that are familiar with Korean traditional song: "Arirang."
Here's a couple versions from different regions in Korea:
Jindo
Bongwha
Kangwon
Kangwon (modern version)
Milyang

and the more familiar:
Joe Hiashi style version

You see, even though I decided to go to Sweden instead of Korea for my study abroad trip, I'm still finding out a lot about what lies in the roots and in the foundation of myself as a person.

Here, as an extra special treat... here's the refrain and one verse of a Jindo Arirang I wrote today: Yeon-Hee's Jindo Arirang (short)