Search - Mari Boine :: Radiant Warmth

Chills

04/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Nordic genius knows how to give you goosebumps. Using authentic instruments, yet moving towards popular culture, Boine creates a mystical atmosphere catapulting the listener into far away places. Beautiful imagery. The lyrics are translated into English, and you can find a short paragraph on Sami culture."

Too exceptional to be a mere representative of joik.

cam h. | USA | 08/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Based on the other cds of Mari Boine's I have, I think this cd is a compilation of tracks available elsewhere--at least several of the tracks are on other cds. It is still entirely worth getting considering the difficulty of finding her work in America. I won't use this review to go on about joik, suffice it to say it is a song/vocal tradition of the indigenous people of parts of Scandinavia and Russia. Mari Boine is one of the most popular joik performers, to my knowledge the only person as well known as her is Wimme Saari, who is also phenomenal. Boine does more than do justice to or "continue" the beautiful joik tradition. She develops it. And masterfully. You can read more about her and the tradition in the cd's liner notes, but really, it's something you need to hear, to feel. Incidentally, another bonus to this cd is the booklet included. Scholar Harald Gaski, himself Sami, contributed a small essay and the titles and lyrics to the songs are translated into english. That allows a non-Sami speaker to know roughly what is being said, but for me, it was interesting but secondary--you can feel what's going on. I'm not kidding. Still, it is a considerate and enlightening contribution.Boine doesn't always use a musical accompaniment, but when she does it is amazing. She uses instruments from various types of music, but her ultimate instrument is her voice. How she sings is as amazing as what she sings about. She is a wise and dedicated advocate of human and environmental rights, but whether she sings of systematic political oppression, the nature we are part of, or personal grief or struggle, her extraordinary abilities convey the sincerity and importance of her messages.The music of Mari Boine is absolutely essential for anyone who knows that music is beyond popularly dictated background noises, or "a cool song" you senselessly sing along with and dispose of when it's filled your temporary needs. She embraces the moral (ie, "politcal") inevitability of music--vocal and instrumental--it's capacity to move our souls, and the jolts of sheer energy it can send through you when your hurt, joy, anger or reverence are recognised and expressed."

Tribal Finnish for the 21st Century

ecotruchas | Salt Lake City, UT USA | 11/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ever been dissappointed with tribal-traditional music being too techno or too simple? You won't be dissappointed with Mari Boine's Radiant Warmth. I absolutely adore this work and hope that I can see her perform someday. Some pieces are soft and lyrical, like a personal prayer. Others are vigorous and communicate to a larger spirit... community...to a tribe of listeners; her voice, calling out, delicately earthy, echoing through wooded expanse, the telling of oral stories in music and chant. If we, as humans, are able to get back to a sense of intimate, tribal communication and rhythm of the north country...this is what I would imagine it would be...in the setting of our modern lives."