Crossing the Norwegian-Finnish Border (Special Podcast)

WNYC Studios

New Sounds is unlike any radio show you've ever heard: a whirlwind tour of new and unusual music from all corners of the globe. New Sounds combs recent recordings for one of the most informative and compelling hours on radio, and aims to make the world smaller. For over 25 years, host John Schaefer has been finding the melody in the rainforest and the rhythm in an orchestra of tin cans. Defying rigid categorization and genre pigeonholing, New Sounds offers new ways to hear the ancient language of song. With guest musicians from David Byrne to Meredith Monk to Ravi Shankar to Philip Glass to Christopher O'Riley to Bang On A Can, Schaefer presents performances (both in-studio and from the New Sounds Live concert series) and premieres new works from the classic and operatic to folk and jazz, and anything else in between. Each show has a theme, ranging from post-rock to klezmer to African blues to minimalism. The variety of cultures and styles explored is boundless. Music you may not have known existed and now can't live without.

Conseillé par :

Bertrand

For this New Sounds, we’re at the Norwegian-Finnish border, with musicians who are either or both Finnish and Norwegian, and music which involves the Finnish folk-harp, the kantele (which is held in a player’s lap or on a small table.) Hear music from composer, singer and master of the kantele, Sinikka Langeland, who is half Finnish, and half Norwegian. Her most recent record, “The half-finished heaven,” is a collaboration with sax player/composer Trygve Seim, classical viola player Lars Anders Tomter and percussionist Markku Ounaskari, featuring settings of verse by Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. However, the tune we’ll hear, “Caw of the crane,” is a melody-filled conversation between viola and kantele, punctuated by percussion.

There’s also music from American percussionist Jeanette Wrate (Kangas), (who has both Finnish and Norwegian roots) from her recording, “Echoes of a Northern Sky” where Finnish folk music meets jazz. Then, from Norwegian sax player Jan Garbarek, listen to Norway’s wind and the sound of the Fjords turned into music by way of wood flute and wind harp, (or æolian harp.) Also, listen to music from English musician Andrew Cronshaw's cross-cultural collaboration, "The Unbroken Surface of Snow," at times an unlikely combination of kantele and duduk. Plus, music from Finnish singer Sanna Kurki-Suonio and more.

PROGRAM #3743– Crossing the Norwegian-Finnish Border (First aired on 06/25/2015)

ARTIST(S)

RECORDING

CUT(S)

SOURCE

Sinikka Langeland

The half-finished heaven

Caw of the crane, excerpt [1:30]

ECM 2377www.ecmrecords.com

Jan Garbarek

Dis

Dis [7:44]