You can find our playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2DXxjoOfnSTZWvohRJohSu?si=cf1e8efce5534372.

Hello, hello! You are listening to WREK Atlanta on 91.1 FM. This is Aiya! So, last week I announced that I will take recommendations for what countries to do, and I was asked to do Norway! The last time we did Norway was in 2023 and can be found on our website.

By the way, there will be no episode next week, and we will pick up again next next week!

The recording of this episode is here.

Folk music

Nils Oakland is a Norwegian musician well-known for his Hardanger fiddle mastery. He is considered a bridge between folk music and contemporary music. We will listen to his piece Myrkjeblatt.

Up next Slatten hans Borgar.

Norwegian folk has a lot of ballads and there are just a lot of different kinds of ballads I didnt even know about. For example:

• Nature myth ballads: feature rock climbing and encounters with underground beings.
• Legends: feature religious content.
• Historical ballads: not necessarily truthful, they tell about events that might have happened!
• Knight ballads describe the life of novelty, talk about love and sometimes about battles. They are the largest group of ballads!
• Troll and giant ballads: talk about encounters with supernatural beings, but tend to be more adventurous than nature ballads.
• Prank ballads: khm, warning, some adult content.

The piece we will play next is called Rosenfole, and is a very old Norwegian folk song. It was reimagined by the singer Agnes Buen Garnas and Jan Garbarek.

Here is a quote of how the full album came to be:

"The first time I heard Jan Garbarek was in 1979. He played a concert in Oslo, in the Konserthus. I liked his compositions and loved the mixture of his saxophone and the organ he performed with at that particular concert. I felt that this was music of our time, modern but classical at the same time. I was deeply impressed. Only a few years later I was given some money to record mediaeval ballads and I immediately thought about Garbarek. I called him and asked if he like to arrange some mediaeval Norwegian songs and he said yes. First we talked about it and then I recorded some songs and sent them to Garbarek. I explained what I thought the songs were telling about. These epic stories are full of symbols, a lots of enigmatic, with more than one answer. My idea was to give these stories a new life. After a while he sent his music to me. I looked forward to hear his saxophone sound, an unique sound that nobody else has. I loved his arrangements but it wasn’t saxophone sound at all." (https://www.folkworld.eu/44/e/rosen.html) 

Classical Music inspired by folk: 

Edward Grieg - Peer Gynt. This one I couldn't skip, since this is perhaps one of the most famous Norwegian composers, who also took inspiration in folk music.

Joik 

Next we will listen to several pieces that incorporate joik. Joik is a traditional form of singing of Sami people, they live in Northern Europe and that includes Norway. Even though it used to refer to only one of the singing styles which Sami people have, in English it refers to any singing by Sami people. Joiks are meant to evoke a person, animal or place. According to the legends, fairies and elves gave joiks to the Sami people.

Joik is believed to be one of the oldest continuous musical traditions in Europe! That is crazy cool.

Even though during the Christianization period joiking was regarded as sinful, it was maintained. Currently, joiks are performed in two different styles: a more traditional style, where there are no clear words, it is sometimes called "mumbling"; and a modern style performed by young people.

We will now listen to Aillohas.

Next song is called Samiid Aednan, and it was Norway's entry for Eurovision song contest in 1980! It features joik in the chorus and is sung in Norwegian. Apparently, it also was used as a game chant by Norwegian football (soccer) fans. The song we will play is a cover (since we couldn't find the original on the Spotify).

Next crazy example of where you might have heard joiks is ... Frozen! The opening track of Frozen called "Vuelie" is an adaptation of Frode Fjellheim's track "Eatnemen Vuelie (Song of the Earth)". Frode is a South Sami musician and composer.

Joik + Rock

Mari Boine is just an amazing example of how joik is combined with rock.

Rock

Speaking about rock, I couldn't stop myself from playing Take on me by a-ha, probably one of the most famous Norwegian bands!

Black metal

It is said that the second wave of black metal that came out of Norway in the 1990s is what really defined black metal. We will play for you a very famous band called Mayhem.

Rap

Karpe is a famous modern day Norwegian rapper.

Pop

Astrid S is also a popular Norwegian pop artist.