Torgeir Vassvik is a Sami artist from Sápmi's northernmost tip Gamvik in Norway, whose shamanistic vocal and percussion rituals draw their strength and profundity from the extreme polar climate and landscape. Combining traditional Sami Joik and resonant throat singing, he updates mystic musical techniques for the 21st century.
Sami practice of the joik, a form of long, slow, chant-style song formed deep in the throat, intended to act as an aural representation of an individual person, landscape or animal – a sort of portrait in sound.
Often mournful, mysterious and hauntingly evocative, joiking may be Europe’s oldest living musical tradition, but as Vassvik delivers it, it could almost be mistaken for cutting-edge, jazz-inflected vocal experimentation. The soundscapes he creates perfectly capture the rugged and extraordinary beauty of his home, and seem to come from somewhere raw and primal. ‘It’s dark as asphalt and goes straight through you’, one critic declared.
'A magnetic and individual live performer, among the most fascinating and intense of sami contemporary joikers. A true orginal.' -fRoots
