Angelit – Ruojain Ruotot

Angelit is a Finnish Sami folk music group which consists of two sisters, Ursula and Tuuni Länsman, who sing in Sami language. Sami people are a minority group and culture in Lapland in Finland and other Nordic countries. Actually, Angelit has brought that culture better in people’s awareness in Finland. Angelit come from the village of Angeli in the municipality of Inari, in Northern Finland, Lapland. At the beginning there were other girls from Angeli as singers in the band, too. Angelit has recorded nine studio albums between the years 1992 and 2003. The band is one of the best known developer of Sami music and the most famous Sami band in the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21^st century in Finland. They have also been performing overseas.

Angelit’s music genre is 'yoik' (joiku in Finnish) which is a traditional Sami form of song. Sami people's own music differs a lot from, for instance, popular music. The most famous type of yoik is ‘luohti’ among the Nordic Sami. Angelit combines the yoik with a modern electric tone. The yoik tells often about animals, nature or a person who is described verbally, melodically and rhythmically with gestures and facial expressions. There is usually a pentatonic scale in the yoik. The yoik has changed over the years but the essential features of yoik have remained. Modern yoik is more melodic and its vocal is primmer. The vocal in the yoik is very different in comparison with the basic ones. It is typical of yoik that the vocal has rapid variations between natural sound and falsetto.


I chose the song Ruojain Ruotot to introduce because I think it’s a clear and cheerful yoik. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the words of the song and translation of the name. The song Ruojain Ruotot represents yoik with many different percussion instruments in the background so it’s very rhythmical and absorbing. Its ambiance is quite happy. The melody has large intervals in vocal but the song is pretty monotonous in its entirety. Ruojain Ruotot includes one verse between two choruses.

Link to listen the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vyDQhTIicY&feature=related
                                                                                                                                  

Lauri Viljavuori