Customer Reviews

Gula Gula

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mary Boine Persen is a shaman, and some of the songs on this album will just about pull you out of your body in a state of heart ecstasy. You may likely waltz to the haunting lullabies for days. There are a few songs which are very lively. 'Enjoyable enough, but I prefer the softer, more beautiful cuts. When played in a group doing meditative kinds of work, everyone wants to know what the music is.

Mari Boine brings the ancient to life in this CD of primal ballads, chants, and sometimes soft, sometimes strikingly harsh vocals. It starts off with the deep chanting of "Gula Gula", a great introduction to this path through the wilderness of the north. After this, several softer tracks blare through the fog, with Mari's voice going from the most intimate notes to a shrill cry from deep within her throat. The seventh track "Oppskrift for Herrefolk" is a suprisingly upbeat tune, and one of my favorites. While the songs are in Mari's native Saami, the lyrics are printed in English, along with a short description of Mari's career. This is a beautiful work, filled to the brim with ancient tradition in a modern setting, of untouched beauty.

If you want to go north, this is one way of doing so without travelling. Mari Boine takes you there with the sound of her plaintive cries and her northern melodies. This is not Celtic song, or German opera. It is unique and original. It derives from the wind, the rain, the snow, the constant gray skies, the darkness in winter, the kind spring, the warm summer sun of endless light. It surprised me. Being half finnish but never having been to my family's native land, I am now more resolved than ever to go and participate in the musical festivities.
For non native listeners, it will open your heart to new landscapes hidden from you. Listen carefully and you will see the months passing and the land changing before your inner heart.
Leslie Van de Ven, RN, BA.

It is amazing how Joik tradition has evolved. The traditional style of no real beginning or ending of their particular style and the fact that Joik is different every time a "song" is "sung" brings you back to a time of a REAL beginning, of oral tradition and everyday life as it is. These days are sad because there is no real togetherness like the Sami people had . I envy them for their hard livelyhood and REAL family life!

I like this. It is powerful with somewhat of a haunting quality to it. I have to say though about two songs of this is enough at one time. They are all very similar to my ears. I like this music and artist but I will only be listening to a couple songs at a time because I just don't see much difference between the songs, and the fact that the music is so powerful makes it difficult for me to take in large doses.

I have the original (?) US release on Peter Gabriel's RealWorld label and I've always cherished it. She was my 'doorway drug' into the wave of revved-up modernist interpretations of Scandinavian folk music that exploded in the late 1990s-early 2000s, exemplified by the bands on the late lamented Northside record label here in the USA. It's interesting to me that an earlier reviewer marked the upbeat sounding "Oppskrift for Herrefolk" as one of their favorites. I like it a lot too, but people may be interested to know that the title translates to 'Recipe for a Master Race' and is the bitterly sarcastic recounting of the Norweigan govt's policy of cultural genocide against the Sami - special schools for the kids, banning the Sami language and religion, basically the same stuff Native Americans were/are subjected to.

I love the CD, and am impressed with the spirit that is evident in this music. I am very happy with the product and the speed of delivery! I give bakselsen@snet.net a five star rating for this, as I bought it used from him.