Two iconic performers of Scandinavian world music bring us their latest albums, outshining the brightest of the Northern Lights. The career of the Finnish Värttinä started out in 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä in Karelia, where they used to perform as a kind of traditionalist folk music band. As the members grew up and moved to Helsinki to study music, the composition and style of the group changed. ‘Pure tradition' was followed by authentic arrangements, and since the mid-1990s the group has largely produced its own original ethno-pop albums. Traditional folk music made a comeback in last year's album, Viena, inspired by a "pilgrimage” to the Karelian huts, saunas, lakes and boats the members of the group had known from old postcards. The experience took them back to their musical roots, while they never for a moment lost their distinctive, exhilarating ambiance.
The Norwegian Mari Boine is one of the best-known representatives of the Arctic Sami tradition. She grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s in an environment ashamed of its Sami linguistic heritage and shamanistic religion. She soon started to rebel against the prejudiced attitude that her people wer inferior by writing protest songs, only to eventually turn to her suppressed Sami faith and culture. However, her music is more than just tradition rekindled. While her captivating singing reveals elements of the Sami joik style, based on the variation and repetition of words, her outlook is considerably more complex. She melds Christian melodies with ancient Sami rhythms, not to mention African and Latin-American folk music, jazz, rock and electronic music. Published in 2017, her recent album See the Woman is what might be described as spherical synth-pop evocative of the years and influences that marked the start of her career.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest