Elsa's Kind of Music: Cantus and Frode Fjellheim with "Njokte"

Today's random song is called Njokte and is by the Norwegian choir Cantus with composer Frode Fjellheim. Fjellheim is a Norwegian yoiker, pianist and synthesizer player who founded the group Transjoik, but is best known for composing the opening song for the Disney animated movie Frozen. Cantus is a female Norwegian choir consisting of about 30 amateur voices. They have won international awards for their music, and they provided the voices for Fjellheim's opening composition for Disney's Frozen, called Vuelie. You can find Njokte on Cantus' 2017 album Northern Lights.  The song starts at about 1:45.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_(Norwegian_female_choir) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frode_Fjellheim

The Lives of Women: Justin Adams with Anneli Drecker and "Wassoulou"

English guitarist Justin Adams brings us today's random tune. Adams in blues and African styles, and he started his career in the band The Impossible Dreamers. He also worked for a time with Jah Wobble in his group Invaders of the Heart. Adams also co-wrote Robert Plant's 2005 album Mighty Rearranger, and has partnered with Gambian griot Juldeh Camara on four albums. This song, Wassoulou, is from his 2017 album Ribbons. He is joined on the song by Norwegian singer and actor Anneli Drecker, who fronts the dream pop band Bel Canto. The title of the song refers to a region in western Africa distinguished by a style of call and response music performed mostly by women on traditional instrumentation with themes around childbearing, fertility and polygamy.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Adams; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneli_Drecker

Strength and Power from Music: Rita Ericksen and "Villemann og Magnhild"

Our random tune for today is a collaboration between Scandinavia and Celtic Ireland. The song is called Villemann og Magnhild, and it is performed by Norwegian singer Rita Eriksen who began her career with her brother, guitarist and singer Frank Eriksen, as a roots/folk/country/blues group called Eriksen. However, she has had her own solo career as well. She went on a 10 year hiatus from recording, but came roaring back in 2008 and again in 2014. Millemann og Magnhild can be found on her 1996 album Tideland, jointly recorded with singer Dolores Keane, a founding member of the Irish group De Danaan. It can also be heard on the various artists compilation Putumayo Presents: Dublin to Dakar - A Celtic Odyssey (1999). The song is a mediaeval Norwegian tune about a wild man who played a harp to release a woman from the arms of a troll.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Eriksen

Preaching from the Choir: Cantus and Frode Fjellheim with "Njokte"

Today's random song is called Njokte and is by the Norwegian choir Cantus with composer Frode Fjellheim. Fjellheim is a Norwegian yoiker, pianist and synthesizer player who founded the group Transjoik, but is best known for composing the opening song for the Disney animated movie Frozen. Cantus is a female Norwegian choir consisting of about 30 amateur voices. They have won international awards for their music, and they provided the voices for Fjellheim's opening composition for Frozen, called Vuelie. You can find Njokte on Cantus' 2017 album Northern Lights.  The song starts at about 1:45.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_(Norwegian_female_choir) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frode_Fjellheim

Must be Uncomfortable: Sver and "Måsså ti Nåsså"

Our random tune for today is by five-piece Norwegian band Sver. With two fiddlers, a guitarist, a percussionist and a two-row accordionist, Sver was founded in 2008 as an instrumental band. They perform their own compositions and while their music is based in folk, they approach it with a rock style. This song, Måsså ti Nåsså (Moss in the Nose), can be found on their 2015 album Fryd.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

It Was Dry Here: Annbjørg Lien and "Villvinter (Wild Winter)"

Norwegian fiddler Annbjørg Lien brings us the random tune for today. A player of the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa, Lien first became known in Norway in the mid 1980s by combining traditional Norwegian music with jazz and rock. She is also a member of the String Sisters, a group of female string players from six different countries. This song, Villvinter (Wild Winter), is from her 2005 album Prisme.

A Good Joik for You: Adjagas and "Hás It!"

Today's random tune is a joik. Really. Called Hás It!, it is performed by the Norwegian Sámi group Adjagas. Joiks are highly spiritual songs that may have few or no lyrics, do not rhyme and do not have a definite structure. Subjects can range in topic but are usually about something important to the individual singer. They can also be highly personal - in the north of Scandinavia individuals are often given their own personal joik at birth. The songs are often accompanied by the reedpipe known as the fadno, the Sami drum, and sometimes the bagpipes called the sak-pipe and the wal-pipe. One might also see the trumpet-like instrument called a lur, and the zither called a harpu and in the more modern bands, more modern instrumentation. You can find Hás It! on Adjagas' 2009 album Mánu Rávdnji.

Fairy Light: Elin Kåven and "Váimmu Čuovga"

Today's random tune is by Elin Kåven, "The Arctic Fairy." Elin Kåven is a Sami recording artist, dancer and interior designer who lives in Norway. She started her music career in 2009, participating in a Sami music contest with a song of her own composition. She released her debut album that December. She is considered one of the pioneers of tribal fusion dance in Norway - she runs a tribal fusion and bellydance school in Oslo and has traveled around Europe teaching these dance styles. She has released three albums. This song, Váimmu Čuovga (Heartlight), can be found on her 2012 CD Maizan - Thaw.

Iran So Far Away: Abdulrahman Surizehi and "Bya Bya"

Today's song, Bya Bya, is by Abdulrahman Surizehi, an ethnic Baloch musician from Iran who lives in Oslo, Norway. He is a specialist in the benju, a keyboard zither, and is acknowledged as the instrument's greatest performer. Bya Bya can be found on his 2011 album Balochi Gowati O Damali Zeymol - Rakhshani Love Songs and Trance Music from Balochistan.

Looky, Loki: Annbjørg Lien and "Loki"

From Norway comes today's random tune by Annbjørg Lien. A player of the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), violin, and nyckelharpa, Lien first became known in Norway in the mid 1980s by combining traditional Norwegian music with jazz and rock. She is also a member of the String Sisters, a group of female string players from six different countries. This song, Loki, is from her album Baba Yaga (2000), and references the trickster god of Norse mythology.

Usually When I Have to Go: Adjágas and "Hás It!"

Adjágas, from Norway, bring the random tune for today...Hás It! The band is made up of joikers Lawra Somby and Sara Marielle Gaup along with other musicians (joiks are highly spiritual song with no rhyming or structure that are common in the Sami cultures of northern Scandinavia). "Adjágas" itself is a Sami word for the state between waking and sleeping. Hás It! can be found on their album Mánu Rávdnji, released in 2009.

Straight Outta Balochistan: Abdulrahman Surizehi and "Bya Bya"

Today's song, Bya Bya, is by Abdulrahman Surizehi, an ethnic Baloch musician from Iran who lives in Oslo, Norway. He is a specialist in the benju, a keyboard zither, and is acknowledged as the instrument's greatest performer. Bya Bya can be found on his 2011 album Balochi Gowati O Damali Zeymol - Rakhshani Love Songs and Trance Music from Balochistan.

Not Swinish At All: Orbestra and "Norway"

Today's random song is Norway, by Orbestra. Orbestra was formed in 1989 by eight classical musicians who wanted to record the folk music of different cultures in Africa, Colombia, Macedonia, Shetland and Spain. Their instrumentation consists of clarinet, cello, bassoon, double bass, tarambuka, teppan, mbira, bamboo flute, trombone, and violin accompanied by voice. Norway can be found on their 1992 CD, Transdanubian Swineherds' Music.

Nordgrass: Frigg and "Grannen"

Bluegrass is one of those genres of music that, like funk, I feel right down to my bones. I think I read somewhere that genetics can play a part in how you relate to places and what you like and don't like. Or maybe I didn't. But I think that now. My example...I grew up in Northern California on the coast. My family has property inland in the Mendocino Range, and I always loved going out there and being among the mountains and the valleys. There are few things more peaceful for me than sitting under a tree on the top of a ridge and hearing the wind move through the branches of the trees above me.

In my 20s, when I was doing volunteer work for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, I did some pre-scouting with the group for a community in Hazard, Kentucky in the center of the Appalachians. When I got there, I almost felt I was home. I thought it was because the Appalachians looked like the mountains in the Mendocino Range, but it was more than that. I almost felt like I identified with the people and the culture there also, including the music. I had a chance to do another year of volunteer service there, but decided against it because I had already done two years of volunteer service and felt like I needed to get on with my life. I now think that had I gone to live in Appalachia for a year, I might have stayed there.

Fast forward into my forties, when I discovered my birth family. I was adopted when I was two and I never had known who my birth family was. My biological mother's side of the family came from West Virginia in a region that is Appalachian. And then it hit me - that must have been the reason for why I felt such affinity for mountains and valleys, for bluegrass music, for folk music in general. Could it be that all of this is ingrained in my genetic makeup? I would ask some geneticist (if one ever reads this) to let me know if this is a valid theory or if any research has been done on genetics and place and genetics and culture. I know that genetic memory research has been done on genetics and language and genetics and trauma, but it seems that there is more to genetic memory than this.

Today's random tune is by a group that comes from a region that I have really no genetic affinity with but which I desperately want to see and whose folk music I like very much. Frigg is a Finnish-Norwegian folk band formed in 2002. Their members hail from the Kaustinen region of Finland and the Nord-Trøndelag region of Norway, and they play folk music from both of those regions as well as mixing in some Americana, particularly bluegrass (which is probably why I like them), and some Irish folk music as well. They are named after the Norse goddess of love and fertility, and have taken to calling their mix of Nordic folk music with other musical styles Nordgrass. Grannen is from their 2010 album of the same name.