Lapland
In My Heart

Grand old man with Sami yoiks

Sami yoiks

Ingvald Guttorm (77) is "the grand old man" of Sami yoiks. He has now released a CD where he yoiks alone without the Sami group Tanabreddens Ungdom (The Youth of the banks of Tana). The release concert was in the little Sami village Båteng in the Tana river valley.

Ingvald Guttorm became famous through his participation in the Tanabreddens Ungdom. The group managed to make Sami music popular in among the Sami people and generally in Norway where the group was on the top ten list over a long period.

The musicians on Ingvalds CD are Norwegian top flute player Steinar Ofsdal, who is also a professor at the Norwegian Music High School. With him are two of his students. Sanskriti Shrestha from Katmandu in Nepal in Himalaya. She plays the the tabla (a Nepalese drum). The other is Trym Bjønnes who is a folk musician from Setesdalen i Norway. He plays guitar and bow guitar.

Release concert

The concert became a first class Sami musical happening. The versatile Estonian musician, Katriin Raska, played beautifully on flute, saxophone, Estonian bag pipe and Jew's harp. In addition the local bassist, Per Gunnar Andersen, played. Together the musicians emphaziced Ingvald's talented yoik.

The reknowned Sami musician, Amund Johnskareng, also wanted to honour his friend, Ingvald, with a varied repertoire of traditional and contemporary Sami music.

The last department of the concert belonged to Tanabreddens Ungdom, Ingvald's group through many years.

The CD is called "Mun ain juoiggadan" (I am still yoiking). For a long time Ingvald has gathered traditional yoiks on both sides of the Finnish-Norwegian border. In the CD you'll also find some of his own yoiks.

To the left we see the remaining main persons of the group Tanabreddens ungdom, Irene Pettersen and Hartvik Hansen. (All photos: Olav E. Johansen)

Music related to Tana river

Regrettably we cannot give an example from Ingvald Guttorm's new CD, but here is song about the Tana river from good old days when Ingvald also was in the group.

The band Deatnugatte Nuorat (The banks of Tana youth) from the Tana valley became famous from 1974 when they made their first LP.
Here is a tribute to the Tana river Vuoi min Deatnu. They always sing in the Sami language.

And here is their song about the beautiful girl, Majja (Mary) from Tana. The song is called Deanu-Majja (Mary from Tana)

Finally one of Ingvalds traditional Sami yoiks