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sami music

Sami Music

Norway · 1600s
DreamyChillSentimentalEpicDancing

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Description

Sámi music is the musical expression of the Indigenous Sámi people of Sápmi (northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula). At its heart is the joik (North Sámi: luohti; South Sámi: vuelie; Skolt Sámi: leu’dd; Inari Sámi: livđe) — a vocally driven tradition in which a person, place, animal, spirit, or moment is evoked rather than described. Joiks use short, motif-like phrases, vocables, flexible meter, and modal or pentatonic pitch collections.

Traditional accompaniment includes the Sámi frame drum (goavddis), wooden or bone idiophones, the fadno (an angelica-stem reed flute), and, in later periods, Scandinavian fiddles and Jew’s harp. Since the late 20th century, Sámi artists have fused joik with jazz, rock, pop, ambient, and electronic production, creating a contemporary Sámi sound that travels easily between the festival stage, film/TV, and concert hall while keeping a clear line back to the ancestral voice.


Sources: Spotify, Wikipedia, Discogs, Rate Your Music, MusicBrainz, and other online sources

History

Origins and early record

The joik tradition predates written sources and is likely far older than the earliest accounts by Scandinavian clergy and travelers in the 1600s. Joik functioned as a social, spiritual, and mnemonic practice: to joik a person or landscape is to bring it present through sound.

Suppression and survival (17th–19th centuries)

Christianization (including Lutheran and Laestadian movements) targeted drums and joik as “pagan,” leading to confiscations of drums and discouragement of public practice. Despite pressure, joik persisted in family circles, reindeer-herding camps, and gatherings, with regional variants (luohti, vuelie, leu’dd, livđe) continuing in oral transmission.

Cultural awakening and revival (1960s–1990s)

Post-war Sámi political and cultural awakening, culminating in events like the Alta controversy (1979–81), catalyzed renewed pride and public performance. Pioneers such as Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (Áillohaš) and later Mari Boine brought joik to international stages, often blending it with contemporary jazz, folk, and rock idioms.

Contemporary fusion and global reach (2000s–present)

A new generation expanded the palette: electronic and ambient joik (e.g., Wimme Saari), pop and rock crossovers, and hip-hop- and R&B-adjacent projects. Composer Frode Fjellheim’s “Vuelie” framed Disney’s Frozen with a South Sámi-inspired choral opening, while artists like KEiiNO and Jon Henrik Fjällgren introduced joik-inflected hooks to mainstream TV and Eurovision audiences. Today, Sámi music thrives simultaneously as a living oral art, a site of language revitalization, and a dynamic platform for genre-spanning innovation.

How to make a track in this genre

Core vocal approach (joik)
•   Start with a short, memorable motif that “is” your subject (person, animal, place) rather than describing it. Use vocables (e.g., “loi, lai, yo”) freely. •   Keep rhythm flexible: joiks often float in free or elastic meter, but can lock into pulse when accompanied. •   Use modal or pentatonic pitch materials and narrow ambitus; emphasize repetition with subtle variation, ornamentation, glottal attacks, and timbral shifts.
Traditional instrumentation
•   Frame drum (goavddis): provide a steady, earthy beat or heartbeat-like pulse; vary dynamics and stroke area for color. •   Fadno (angelica-stem reed flute) or simple flutes: add drones, sustained tones, or echo the vocal motif. •   Add regional folk fiddle or Jew’s harp for timbral variety; keep textures sparse to foreground the voice.
Contemporary fusion
•   For folk-rock/pop settings: place the joik motif over 4/4 at 70–110 BPM, with low drums and drones (bowed strings, synth pads). Keep harmony simple (i–VII–VI or i–VI–III progressions; modal vamping on i–VII). •   For ambient/electronic: layer breathy pads, granular textures, and environmental field recordings (wind, reindeer bells). Sidechain subtly to the drum for movement without overpowering the vocal. •   In jazz contexts: treat the joik as a head; improvise sparsely around its contour. Use modal harmony (Dorian/Aeolian) and leave space for unaccompanied vocal episodes.
Language and text
•   When using Sámi languages (North, Lule, Inari, Skolt, South), prioritize authentic phonetics and prosody. If using vocables only, respect the tradition’s intent (evocation/presence) rather than narrative lyric writing.
Form and arrangement
•   Build pieces through accretion and timbral change rather than conventional verse–chorus. Let the joik recur as refrain; interleave instrumental echoes and call-and-response with drum or flute. •   Endings can be open or fade-outs, echoing the cyclical, presence-evoking nature of the form.

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Influenced by
Joik
Joik (also spelled yoik; Northern Sámi: luohti; South Sámi: vuelie; Skolt Sámi: leu'dd) is an ancient Sámi vocal tradition from Sápmi in Northern Fennoscandia. It is typically an unaccompanied, highly personal chant that aims to evoke the essence of a person, animal, landscape, or event rather than to narrate it. Melodies are concise, built from small motifs, often modal or pentatonic, and rich in ornaments, glottal attacks, microtonal inflections, and flexible timbre. Joik can be free in meter or groove subtly around a pulse; historically it could be accompanied by the Sámi frame drum, though unaccompanied performance is common. Modern artists sometimes blend joik with folk, jazz, pop, ambient, or electronic textures while maintaining its distinctive vocal core.
Shamanic Music
Shamanic music is ritualistic music used in religious and spiritual ceremonies associated with shamanism. It places a strong emphasis on voice and rhythm, often featuring repetitive drumming, chanting, vocables, and trance-inducing textures. Because shamanism is a global complex of practices, the sound varies widely by culture and region—from Siberian frame-drum chants and Tuvan overtone singing to Amazonian icaros and Arctic throat-singing. Despite this diversity, common traits include cyclical rhythmic patterns, drones, timbral focus (rattles, jaw harps, overtone techniques), and performance aimed at healing, divination, journeying, or community cohesion.
Folk
Folk is a song-centered acoustic tradition rooted in community storytelling, everyday life, and social history. It emphasizes clear melodies, simple harmonies, and lyrics that foreground narrative, protest, and personal testimony. As a modern recorded genre, folk coalesced in the early-to-mid 20th century in the United States out of older ballad, work song, and rural dance traditions. It typically features acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica), strophic song forms, and participatory singing (choruses, call-and-response).
Norwegian Folk Music
Norwegian folk music is a regional tradition centered on the Hardanger fiddle (Hardingfele), kveding (traditional solo song), and a family of couple- and solo-dances such as springar, gangar, halling, and pols. It uses modal melodies (often Dorian and Mixolydian), drones, and distinctive asymmetric triple meters in which the three beats are of unequal length. Characteristic instruments include the Hardanger fiddle with sympathetic strings and scordatura tunings, standard fiddle, langeleik (zither), seljefløyte (willow flute), wooden lur, bukkehorn (goat horn), munnharpe (jaw harp), and later accordion. Vocal genres range from short, epigrammatic stev to medieval ballads and free, ornamented kveding styles. Ornamentation, double-stops, drones, and dance-driven bowing patterns are core to the sound. The repertoire is organized into slåtter (tunes) linked to particular dances and regions, carrying strong local identities (bygdedans). While deeply rooted in rural tradition, it has continually evolved through collectors, revivals, and collaborations with jazz, classical, and contemporary folk scenes.
Manx Folk Music
Manx folk music is the traditional music of the Isle of Man, one of the six Celtic nations. It blends dance tunes, work songs, seasonal carols (carvals), and narrative ballads in Manx Gaelic (Gaelg) and English. Stylistically it sits within the wider Celtic sound world but retains its own melodic turns, dance steps, and repertoire, often shaped by seafaring life and island ritual. Fiddle and harp frequently lead, with whistle, accordion, guitar/bouzouki, and bodhrán providing color and rhythm. Modes such as Dorian and Mixolydian, lilting jig rhythms, and communal singing are common features. Today the genre thrives through a modern revival that honors archival collections while supporting new composition in Manx Gaelic, creating a living tradition heard in sessions, festivals, and contemporary folk ensembles.
Swedish Folk Music
Swedish folk music is the traditional music of Sweden, centered on regional dance tunes, herding calls, and narrative songs preserved by rural spelmän (folk fiddlers) and singers. Its core sound features fiddles and the nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle), often played solo or in tight duet, with drones, double-stops, and subtle ornamentation. The repertoire is dominated by dance forms such as the polska (an asymmetrical triple-time dance), schottis, polka, hambo, waltz, and gånglåt ("walking tune"). Vocal traditions include visor (ballads) and kulning (high, piercing cattle-calls from summer pasture culture). Melodically it favors modal colors (Dorian, Mixolydian, hexatonic variants) and a distinctive lilt and swing, especially in polska rhythms. Regional styles from Dalarna, Hälsingland, Uppland, and Jämtland are especially renowned, each with characteristic bowing, phrasing, and ornamentation. While much of the tradition is centuries old, a 20th‑century revival professionalized performance and pedagogy, bringing Swedish folk music to concert stages while maintaining strong links to community dances and spelmansstämma gatherings.
Has influenced
Nordic Folk Metal
Nordic folk metal is a style of heavy metal that fuses metal riffing and song structures with Nordic traditional/folk musical elements. It commonly blends distorted guitars, bass, and punchy drums with folk melodies, dance rhythms, and timbres associated with Scandinavia (such as fiddles, flutes, and sometimes nyckelharpa or tagelharpa-like bowed lyres). Lyrically and aesthetically, it often draws on Norse mythology, pre-Christian history, nature imagery, seasonal rituals, and regional folklore, while musically ranging from upbeat, dance-like energy to grand, epic atmosphere. Compared with broader folk metal, the “Nordic” emphasis usually means Scandinavian melodic language, rhythms reminiscent of regional dances, and themes rooted in Norse/Scandinavian cultural memory rather than pan-European folk references.
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