MARI BOINE

2001 and the artist once known as Mari Boine Persen and then Mari Boine Band, has quite simply taken on her own identity as Mari Boine, and has attracted some of today's most creative remixers with her music.

Mari Boine first began to sing as therapy, unaware that her voice was anything special, and quite embarrassed to sing in public. There was no plan to become an artist.The first lyrics she ever wrote, based on John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" were in the sami language, her native tongue.

She did not begin to learn the history or the language of her people until she went to teacher's college. "I was taught in elementary school to hate what I am," she says. "I was ashamed of my language and my culture. It was impressed upon us that we were somehow inferior." Officially, she is Norwegian. For years she called herself a Lapp, the Norwegian name for her people. All over the world the Sami people are known as Lapps.

Her first professional move was to enter a song competition. Language was not specified, but the contest, which took place in the north where the Samis are a majority, had always been won by singers singing in Norwegian. But she decided to sing in Sami. The first two years she placed, and the third year she won.

Now she was well known in northern Norway, and then appeared on national television. A play based on her songs was a success in Oslo. Her success in Norway lead to tours in Germany.

In 1989, she released her first CD - "Gula Gula" (Listen Listen). It was about the Earth as mother, about respect for nature and the connection between humans and nature - essential concepts for her people. The ecology movement took note and identified. There was a call from the rock star and world music patron Peter Gabriel, whose company Real World Records became her distributor. And she was on a larger map.

She became active in politics and wrote political songs, and now that the number of sami-speaking people has doubled over the past decade, she likes to think that she and her songs had something to do with that.

Mari now attempts to make her music more physical, more danceable; less introverted, less intellectual, more joyful.

Mari Boine fascinates her audience all over the world. She is an unusual artist, in all she does there is a power and a voice we all can understand and identify with, even though her lyrics are performed in the language of the Sami people. A language spoken and understood by very few. Her music takes you on a journey, both inside yourself and to unknown landscapes. A journey which include all aspects of life; from anger and despair to hope, passionate love and joy of life.

Mari Boine has performed all over Europe. Her albums have received critical acclaim all over, and the concerts have left the audience crying for more.

Over the years the music has grown stronger and stronger. This lead to the natural decision to record the band live. During the summer of 1996, several concerts were recorded and the result is the stunning album "Live / Eallin" released in November 96. This CD gives you an idea of the magic spell Mari Boine casts on the listeners during her live performances.

The album received a Norwegian Grammy award in 1997.

Her first album with an international distribution, "Gula Gula", was recorded in 1989 and released internationally by Real World. The album received critical acclaim in The Guardian, Q, NME and Folk Roots, and did nicely on several record pools.

Mari Boine's third CD ""Goaskinviellja" (Eagle Brother) was released in Norway in April 1993 and was enthusiastically received by the Norwegian critics. Norway's largest daily paper VG, wrote; "Proud and beautiful.... Ethnic music has a rather large audience outside Norway. You should be aware of the fact that perhaps the most interesting artist in this wide field of music is from the Sami people and living in Norway !"

Mari received a Norwegian Grammy award for this album in February 1994.

With the release of her fourth album "Lehkastin" (Unfolding) Mari Boine took a large step forward as a recording artist. At the same time it was natural development for those who had the opportunity to follow her live performances. Mari Boine has always had a strong musical identity closely related to her background from the Sami culture. After several years of working with the same band her identity is now really coming across trough both her recent recording and her concerts. The music on her album "Lehkastin" was commissioned by one of the major jazz festivals in Norway, Vossa Jazz, and premiered in March 1994. The CD was released in Europe by Verve World in 1995.

Mari Boine was born in Sami-country in 1956. She grew up in the small village of Gàmehhisnjàrga, 16 kilometres from the small town of Karasjok. The first music she was exposed to was the psalm singing of the Laestadian movement, a pietistic Christian religious movement with a strong position among the Sami people of Norway. This song tradition is not unlike Negro spirituals. This is only one of the sources of Mari Boine's music. Her music is however not traditional Sami music, but the joik of the Sami people is also a heavy influence on her music and both these traditions are blended with contemporary musicforms, such as jazz, rock and the music of other peoples cultures.

Mari Boine was first met with resistance from her own. She says that this was due to her open rebellion against the role put upon her as inferior both as a member of the Sami people and as a woman. The rebellion was not looked upon positively by people that history had thought to bend rather than fight the oppression of the Norwegian society. Understanding this conflict between the two societies that Mari is living in, is quite essential in understanding her as an artist. Today the majority of the Sami people regard her as one of their greatest ambassadors.

Mari Boine have mainly worked with her own music over the years. She has however performed with Jan Garbarek and participated on one of his latest for ECM , "Twelve Moons". She has also collaborated on recordings with other Norwegian artists and on music for theatre, TV and for art exhibitions.

Her upcoming album, to be released February 25^th 2002, is produced by Bugge Wesseltoft at Bugge's Room in Oslo, and features guest appearances from a.o. Jan Garbarek.

SELECTED RECORDINGS OF MARI BOINE:

• Room of worship Antilles
• Live / Eallin Antilles
• Radiant Warmth Antilles (USA only)
• Leahkastin / Unfilding Verve World
• Goaskinviellja / Eagle Brother Verve World
• Gula Gula Real World
• Jaskatvouda mannà Iduit (Norway only)

With other artists

• Jan Garbarek Visible World ECM
• Jan Garbarek Twelve Moons ECM
• Div.artists Pt.I A Week in Real World Real World
• Div.artists Pt.II A Week in Real World Real World