Bálvvosbáiki

The Indigenous Sámi tradition of joik chanting thrives in many styles across the Sápmi region of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, including wordless improvisation somewhere between yodelling, ululation and scat singing. Contemporary Sámi musicians have fused joik with genres from pop and rock to hip-hop and electronics. Over her career, Ánnámáret (Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman) has collaborated with rapper Áilu Valle and kantele player Maija Kauhanen – but now seems to be forging a genre of her own, an experimental electro-acoustic sound that sets off her astounding, wide-ranging vocals. Ánnámáret, whose family herds reindeer in northernmost Finland, is a musicologist and conservatory-trained clarinettist who created these new tracks as part of her doctoral studies. This is her second album with Turkka Inkilä, an electronic artist and shakuhachi flute player, and Ilkka Heinonen, whose eerie sound on the Karelian/Estonian jouhikko lyre pairs powerfully with Ánnámáret’s voice. This follow-up to 2021’s stunning Nieguid Duovdagat is even bolder and more assured. This is a challenging, gripping listen, from the opening track, ‘Eanan’, with its muscular, guttural vocals over a nearly industrial soundscape, complete with an ambient interlude. The single ‘Njáhcu’ offers soaring vocals and a retro synth sound – the closest this trio gets to pop, with lyrics lamenting the loss of cold winters and the uncertain future of the reindeer. The title-track, meaning ‘Place of Worship’, shows Ánnámáret’s vocal range, otherworldly and anguished against Inkilä’s didgeridoo-like flute. On an album full of surprises, the ferocious grunge noise of ‘Sieidi’ is a disorienting, heady blast fractured with glitchy video-game electronics. There are also gentler pieces such as ‘Mearrariika’, akin to the more traditional joiks of Wimme Saari, and the lullaby-like ‘Áhkát’, reflecting Ánnámáret’s rich expressive palette as a vocalist and composer.