Mari Boine

The award-winning Norwegian-Sámi artist Mari Boine joins us with accompanist Georg Buljo for performances of her original compositions. Since her breakthrough 30 years ago with the solo album Gula Gula, Mari has released more than a dozen highly acclaimed albums that combine jazz and rock with the traditional folk music of the Norwegian Sámi, with music sung in a traditional folk style using the yoik voice accompanied by a wide range of instruments. In this event she will be performing works off her recent release See the Woman, which feature a melancholic, spherical pop sound with a sophisticated lyrical concept.

“Tremulous, ethereal and powerfully intimate, [Boine’s voice] swoops and wheels over a sonic landscape, carrying images of ice floes and reindeer trails, of snowbirds flying over the Arctic tundra.”—The Telegraph

“[Boine] sings the soul of her native Sámi culture and melds it with modern technology, transporting the listener to a magical, spiritual place.”—The Green Man Review

See an interview with Mari from our 2014 exhibition Sami Stories here:

Mari Boine is an award-winning Norwegian Sámi musician, known for having added jazz and rock to the traditional singing of her native people. Mari sings in a traditional folk style, using the ‘yoik’ voice, together with a wide range of accompanying instruments and percussion. She received the first of her three Norwegian Grammy Awards 30 years ago with her breakthrough solo album Gula Gula, which was released internationally on Peter Gabriel’s RealWorld label. She has since released more than a dozen highly-acclaimed solo albums and collaborated with acclaimed Norwegian jazz musicians like Jan Garbarek and Bugge Wesseltoft.

In 2003 Mari was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize, recognizing her artistic achievements as well as her ability to connect with a global audience while maintaining her integrity as a Sámi. She has been appointed first class in the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, has received an honorary doctorate at the University of Tromsø, and was the recipient of the Norwegian Grammys Honorary Award in 2018. With her unique voice infused by the shaman culture of the Norwegian Sámi, Mari’s trance-like folk music creates a singular sound universe, one that has inspired indigenous artists across the world.

Georg Buljo (b. 1969, Oslo, Norway) is a singer, musician, multiinstrumentalist, composer and producer. He studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and started the experimental alternative rock band Locomotives, which toured heavily in the U.S. and Norway from 1994-2000, and played support for groups such as The Cure, David Bowie, Supergrass and The Allman Brothers. Locomotives released a string of EPs, three full-length albums, and one album released under the band name Amundsen in 2001.

Since 1995, Georg Buljos has collaborated with artist Niko Valkeapää, and received the Spellemann award for the album Niko Valkeapää in 2003. Buljo and Valkeapää have done four additional, highly acclaimed albums, work live as a duo and in different band constellations.

Buljo has always been interested in music that normally goes under the radar of commercial radio. He is fascinated by traditional music in general and Saami/Norwegian music in particular, having grown up with a Saami father and Norwegian mother. He focuses on human communication through music, and on the ground of Saami and Norwegian traditions he works closely to the most basic musicianship and expression of moods and feelings. Saami cultural heritage is the keystone to his music-making, and the yoik is the pillar in his vocal expression.

From Scandinavia House.