Four world music albums manage to be more than the sum of their parts
The world is full of music which has been constructed from elements of different musical cultures as building blocks. Such music can often be structured as a loose collage, where exotic instruments are thrown in as spices and the musical lines follow their own separate paths. It can all come together nicely if the likeness to a collage has been deliberately pursued, but most often it can be more gratifying to discover music where one plus one equals three instead of two. Several recent world music releases manage to succeed in this regard.
Ánnámáret Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman is a Sámi musician and member of a reindeer herding community who has spent her entire life juggling mainstream Finnish culture and her Sámi roots. Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman has been releasing music with different ensembles since 2011, and in 2024 her ensemble Ánnámáret put out their second album, Bálvvosbáiki. At the heart of the music is the Northern Sámi yoik which Näkkäläjärvi also examines in her artistic doctorate.
The other members of ensemble Ánnámáret include Turkka Inkilä on electronics, also known from the art music improvisation group Tölöläb, as well as jouhikko player Ilkka Heinonen and video artist Marja Viitahuhta. Inkilä also plays the Japanese shakuhachi flute on the album.
Although Viitahuhta’s visuals can be seen across different streaming services, the band’s fourth member will inevitably remain on the sidelines during a home listening experience – however, there is no doubt how video art contributes to an impressive live experience. Still, there is plenty to discover in the musical elements even in the absence of visuals.
The opening track “Eanan” starts with a steady beat reminiscent of the sound that comes from wading deep in the snow. The yoik moves in step with a steady beat until the listener is challenged with a rhythmic departure. The sounds from the jouhikko weave their own texture, gradually growing and morphing through processed sounds into a rumble which brings to mind the Finnish cello heavy metal band Apocalyptica. The listener is hooked.
The album’s early promises are fulfilled, the sound world remains rich throughout, the pieces are multi-layered, and the listener is in turn challenged and rewarded. The Northern Sámi texts illuminate the Sámi worldview and ancient themes, but also the world today - will the reindeer herders have to suffer through yet another warm winter (“Njáhchu”)?
Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman has studied yoiks through archive recordings, and her interpretations are enriched by a huge variety of tones, all the way from a low register to brighter notes, from a supple and soft vocal delivery to rattling wails.
The more recent ensemble Eve Crazy and Mar Yo have a different standpoint to exploring and combining different musical worlds. The group was born from discussions between musicians about the societal status of women, and such themes are strongly present on the album. The lyrics deal with femininity, motherhood, art, colonialism and human relationships, at times transcending generations.
Founded in Senegal in 2021, the duo consists of Senegalese rapper Awa Sané and kantele player and singer Marjo Smolander, who hails from Rääkkylä (yes, the very village where Värttinä started!). Both ensemble members contributed to writing lyrics for their album New Stories which features a range of texts in Finnish, Wolof, French and English. With all but one piece written by her, Smolander’s musical vision is realised as she takes on the role of artistic producer on the self-published album.
English lyrics are easier for larger audiences to relate to, but in the end the two musicians’ native languages work to the greatest effect. The album has been marketed as combining Senegalese rap and Finno-Ugric singing tradition and the sonic world of the kantele, but the fusion created through this album amounts to something even richer, more creative and more multidimensional than simply a combination of different elements. The band's original sound is most deliciously crystallised in “Manaja”, where the change of language is barely noticeable, and the Wolof-language rap and Diola rhythms feel like the world’s most natural pairing with Smolander’s Finnish-language folk music rap and incantations.
The traditional song “Ruskie neitsyt, valkie neitsyt”, known to many from Värttinä’s version back in the day, is brought into modern times through a hip-hop beat and lyrics about Tinder. Sané’s strongly accented rap and Smolander’s bright vocals form an effectively contrasting pair in “Jigée ñi”.
The electronic elements fit naturally into the whole, and Smolander’s kantele playing takes turns in reflecting a range of influences from West African echoes to an entirely credible hip-hop beat. A slight unevenness plagues the whole, but the best moments of success are so fine that we hope the next album is already in the works, to refine the promising vision even further.
The sounds of the kantele can also be heard throughout Sami Sammalkallio’s project titled Ruttusound. The name of the group’s debut album, Tropikantele, gives a strong indication of what it is all about. The minimalist melodies played on the kantele are combined with Caribbean sounds and a range of influences such as reggae, dub, ska, cumbia, bossa nova, Molam and Amapiano. These styles are brought together with hip-hop and downtempo beats, and the tempos vary delightfully.
If the sonic worlds heard on Ánnámáret’s and Eve Crazy & Mar Yo’s albums are enriched by their fullness, the strength of Ruttusound’s sound world is perhaps, by contrast, in its airiness. The arrangements leave ample room for each distinct percussion sound and the reverberations of the kantele. Effects are used sparingly, and acoustic and electronic tones support each other.
The concoction comes alive through its grooves and kicks, but after a few listens, the simple melodies start to have a slightly numbing effect. “Oso” reminds me of those pop songs that leave you on the fence as to whether they are super annoying or brilliant in their catchiness. In Finland, the album seems to have attracted attention outside of the folk and world music media, which is a sure sign of appeal across genre boundaries. Given the album is fully instrumental it should prove to be an accessible and interesting publication even internationally.
Sampo Lassila Narinkka’s Suomiklezmer 2 is the only fully acoustic album in this selection and its jaunty beats certainly offer a more formidable challenge for the dance floor. This is the third album from the skilled ensemble, this time sporting a slightly changed line-up. Narinkka is led by double bassist Sampo Lassila, alongside Markku Lepistö (accordion), Aleksi Trygg (viola pomposa) and Janne Tuomi (percussion). Everyone's voices are also heard across the album through wordless humming and lilting.
Narinkka’s music sits somewhere between folk music, chamber music and world music. Lassila, who has been playing klezmer music for a couple of decades, also plays the double bass with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and has been active in several chamber music ensembles. The Suomiklezmer album consists of four traditional Eastern European songs and seven East Helsinki songs composed by Lassila.
East Helsinki is indeed tied to the themes of the album, and musical images of familiar places are further built with the help of field recordings. Roughly a quarter of Helsinki’s residents live in the eastern suburbs of the city and there is a range of characteristic neighborhoods in the area, of which the album focuses on the slightly rougher and more notorious ones. The journey is accompanied by the sounds of the subway in the song “Last Metro Eastbound”. Musically, the places may not be recognizable, but the descriptions written for the tracks guide the listener to the right mental images.
What is fascinating about klezmer is its joyful nature despite its use of minor harmonies, and this is strongly present in Suomiklezmer 2. More melancholic tones are present on tracks such as “A lovescene in Roihuvuori Shopping Center”. The ensemble playing is seamless, painting a mental image of shady clubs, the kind where you would love to hear the band live while hitting the dance floor.
What is the common denominator between this year’s releases of Sámi-Finnish, Finnish-Caribbean, Finnish-Senegalese and klezmer music? The world music published in Finland today is the outcome of painstaking work from musicians deeply familiar with different musical cultures. In their work, the past meets the present and universal themes unite musicians regardless of background. Threads interweave between continents with amazing ease, as if history is being rewritten, as well as the future. The result is music that ends up becoming more than the sum of its parts!
Translation: Hanna-Mari Latham