Sámi singer, Sara Ajnnak, and improvisational folk duo The Ciderhouse Rebellion combine traditions to create something special.

Release Date: 31st October

Format: Digital / CD in spring next year

Label: Self released on Sara Ajnnak’s label

In recent years there has been a huge resurgence in the Sámi culture of Northern Scandinavia. Long repressed, as peoples who do not align with modern territorial boundaries so often are, young Sámi are rediscovering their identity and key to that is the unique joik song tradition.

Joik are song chants which for the singers go beyond evoking their subject to creating music which in some sense becomes part of the subject. For the last decade, Swede Sara Ajnnak has been a leading exponent of modern joik, incorporating modern instruments and working with others to expand the tradition.

IMPROVISED PERFORMANCES

In this most recent collaboration she has joined forces with Adam Summerhayes (fiddle) and Murray Granger, (accordion) who together perform as The Ciderhouse Rebellion (as well as being half of The Haar). Adam and Murray are well known for their spontaneous improvised performances, often created out in the landscape which inspires them.

The trio began working together in 2022, creating a couple of YouTube videos, but this year started a full collaborative recording entitled Landscape Of The Spirits, which has been released in four stages since February. The final part, Jábmieájmmuo (Shadows Between Worlds), is coming out this week, and the full set will be released on CD next year.

Musically, lovers of rhythmic repetitive Gaelic songs as performed by Sian or Julie Fowlis will feel at home here. Many joik do not have meaningful lyrics as such, instead creating evocative vocal soundscapes, and even when there are words they are in Ume Sámi, a rare language even in Sweden.

DELICIOUSLY DIFFERENT

On these songs a repetitive vocal phrase is woven into accordion and fiddle parts which sometime echo the voice, and sometimes go soaring off on their own. Sara’s gorgeous voice is for the most part “conventional”, but occasionally twists off into something deliciously altogether different.

The vocal chants and swirling fiddle and accordion are hypnotic but always melodic and accessible. Despite the subject matter this is no New Age dirge.

The first part, Geärkakame (Cradle) explores the beginnings of life in three quiet, delicate tunes, which put me in mind of Miranda Rutter’s Bird Tunes. The second section, Gárránis (Raven), picks up the pace with insistent rhythms, especially on the entrancing Geärkkie. Part three, Hálluo (Desire), explores themes of longing with beautiful melodies, and one song in particular – Mádduo (Breath of the Ancient) – could have come straight from a book of traditional Scottish laments.

VISCERAL CHAOS

The fourth part, Jábmieájmmuo, is rather different; a single track exploring death and the movement between worlds. The easy tunes are replaced with a visceral, angry chaos where rhythms and melodies keep threatening to emerge but never quite do. The effect is mesmerising.

This collaboration is intensely compelling, profoundly musical and just lovely to listen to. The combination of Sámi tradition and British folk experimentalism might sound a bit intimidating, but this is record will reward you for taking the risk. Best new album I’ve heard this year.

Here’s Sara from the YouTube archives:

Sara Ajnnak online: Website / Instagram / YouTube / Facebook

The Ciderhouse Rebellion online: Website / YouTube

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