Nord Rute release

30 August 2010, www.compass-series.org

The Compass Series presents: Nord Rute – Part 1 of the Valkeapää Narratives.

First presented as live, ambisonic performances at Barents Spektakel 2010 and the Compass Series event at Trinity Buoy Wharf’s Chainstore, The Compass Series are now releasing Nord Rute as a WAV download and limited editionCD in handcrafted case. Pre orders are being taken now for the limited edition CD.

Format: WAV download, Ltd Edition CD in numbered,
handcrafted cover.
Price: WAV Download – £9, CD £13 (inc P+P).
Release Date: October 2010.
Info: info@compass-series.org
www.compass-series.org

Contributors
Spoken word: Ánde Somby, Synnøve Persen, Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup, Klemet Amund Eira
Joik & Sámi Drum: Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup
Electronic music: Ed Handley, Andy Turner
Field Recordings,
Sound Design,
Editing: Ross Adams
Additional Music: Ross Adams (Mbira)
Mastering: Richard Olatunde Baker

’...their joyful, pounding electronica seems to fill the room with light and warmth. One piece is like a gaggle of music boxes bobbing on a tide of deep groove. The contrast with the gritty recordings of the hard work of herding is very satisfying’. Clive Bell, The Wire.

‘Nord Rute’, is the first of four ambisonic projects, inspired by the literary works of Norwegian, Sámi poet, painter and musician Nils Aslak Valkeapää. The 60 minute narrative focuses on Valkeapää’s book ‘The Sun, My Father’, which takes the Norwegian Sámi as its central theme. It is a collaboration between field recordist Ross Adams, electronic music composers Ed Handley and Andy Turner, the Sámi poets Synnøve Persen and Ánde Somby, with Joiking by Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup.

The Sámi are the only ethnic group in the European Union classified as an indigenous people. They are a minority that inhabit four countries – Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia and have their own language and culture, which has thrived due to their ability to adapt to changing social and geographical environments over the centuries. Music and art have emerged as influential tools in the process of maintaining community and identity.

Part docu-poem, part music score, part folk tale and part sound montage, Nord Rute captures the events of a reindeer migration to their spring birthing pastures on the shores of Porsangerfjord, northern Norway. In 2008 Adams travelled 450 kilometres across vast plateaus, through valleys and over frozen lakes with Klemet Amund Eira and his ‘siida’ – a collective of Sámi herding families – and 6000 reindeer. Klemet’s family have been travelling with the reindeer from time immemorial. Using a Soundfield microphone, Adams recorded the age old journey together with mountain recordings of Ingor Antte Ailu Gaup Joiking – an improvisational expression of self and nature intended to translate the ‘essence’ of a person or place into song – and his contemplations on the Noaide (Sámi Shaman). Amidst the dense, gritty field recordings and sound design, poet Ánde Somby travels between city soundscapes, tundra and underworld offering thoughts on his connection to the tundra, Sámi culture, dreamtime, the gift of the reindeer from the ‘underground people’ and what the hunted animal has to say to the hunter.

Incorporated into the narrative is an interpretation of Valkeapää’s poem ‘No.272’, from ‘The Sun, My Father’, with spoken word by Synnøve Persen and processed Mbira performed by Adams. Synnøve was recorded in woods near her homeplace in Porsanger. Poem No.272 is about a reindeer herd on the move examining the Sámis’ complex terms for describing reindeer and sounds of the arctic tundra.

Ed Handley and Andy Turner have taken inspiration from the collected sounds, research into the ancient spirit world of the Sámi people and the impact of modernisation on the ancient migratory routes, for their specially commissioned score. With their sound rooted in cutting edge electronica, Handley and Turner forge field recordings with heavy studio manipulation, creating emotive atmospheres, otherworldly timbres and warped beats which overlap and interweave with the vivid sounds of the reindeer migration.

There was an intense pleasure and delight gained from having the privilege of living with people who have not forgotton the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind, touch stones cracked by ice and polished by rain, who’s Shamans still journey beyond the Milky Way and myths of elders still resonate with meaning. The Compass Series promotes cultural awareness for a global audience through sound and music. Its overarching remit is to facilitate international collaborations between indigenous communities, musicians, artists and professional practitioners, interleaving oral and musical traditions and ecology with contemporary modes of expression through ambisonics.

About the artists

Ánde Somby
Ánde Somby, born in Buolbmat, Norway, is a well known traditional Sámi joik artist and a Research Scholar in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tromso, specialising in Indigenous Rights Law. Somby is only one of two Sámi law professors. He is a member of the group Vajas (echo) and is the vocals and joiker for the band.

Ingor Ánte Áilu Gaup
Ingor Ánte Áilu Gaup, is a Sámi actor, composer and folk musician from Kautokeino, Norway. Gaup was an early part of the rock group «Ivnniguinn», which, among other things, created arrangements of poems by Ailo Gaup, whose work, the musical ‘Våre vidder II’, was presented at the Kautokeino Theater and at cultural festivals in Nord-Norge. This piqued an interest in theater, which lead to the establishment of Beaivváš Sámi Theatre, which he has been part of since 1983. He has also had smaller roles in the Norwegian film The Brothers Dal and The Legend of Atlantis and contributed to such musical publications as Jan Garbarek’s ‘I Took Up the Runes’. Together with Nils Aslak Valkeapää, he released Sápmi lottážan.

Synnøve Persen
Synnøve Persen is a Norwegian visual artist and author, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo in 1978. She has published numerous works in Sami and Norwegian, as well as exhibiting as a solo artist throughout Norway. Her 12th solo exhibition took place in the summer of 2009, and this showcased new paintings from the past two years, working with collaborators John Persen and Jenny-Marie Johnsen. Persen lives and works in her home place in Porsanger, Finnmark.

Ed Handley and Andy Turner
Ed Handley and Andy Turner have been recording electronic music together since 1988. They have remixed and collaborated with many artists, including Björk, Goldfrapp, Grandmaster Flash and The London Sinfonietta. They have recently started exploring collaborations with live instrumentalists, including cellist Zoe Martlew, pianist Will Dutta, Javanese musician Ruhayu Supanggah and the Southbank Gamelan Players. They are currently completing work on a new album, ‘Scintilli’, due for release in 2010.

Ross Adams
Ross Adams is an explorer, sound artist and creator of The Compass Series. He has travelled extensively throughout his ancestral home Africa, living with and recording the music of local instrumentalists, later to be juxtaposed with the best of European and South American electronic artists. This vibrant mix was produced under the banner of self- established record label, «District Six». After graduating from the National Film and Television School with a Master of Arts in Post Production Sound, he set up his own creative company, Tin Roof, specialising in location and post-production sound for the moving image, radio, music, and new media. He has worked as sound recordist and sound designer for BBC Radio and some of the finest international contemporary musicians and artists such as John Cale, Matthew Herbert, Plaid and Ori Gersht.