Ton's Musical Musings: Singing with the bass

Last month I visited Norway, to attend the folk and world music festival in the small town of Førde. It turned out to be a major event -- one of the largest of its kind in all of Scandinavia -- with an audience easily twice as numerous as the town's usual population (11,000).

One of the highlights of Førde 2009 was a fantastic "unplugged" performance by Skáidi at the former bank building of Førde, a beautiful wooden house from the nineteenth century. Skáidi is a very unusual duo, consisting of Sami joiker Inga Juuso and jazz bassist Steinar Raknes.

Their art is one of contrasts: Juuso kept her cool during most of the show, while Raknes worked himself into a frenzy, dripping sweat all over the fingerboard of his mighty double bass. A wonderful climax was forged when the two of them did a freestyle improvisation of wordless vocals and virtuoso plucking on the big fiddle. I am well aware of the earlier ventures into the field of jazz by fellow joiker Mari Boine, also from Norway, but they are no match for this electrifying duo.

To learn more about Skáidi please visit www.skaidi.org

Mihkelas Lemeha Juhan by Skáidi