Ánde Somby
Blank Forms' Lawrence Kumpf is joined by Ánde Somby via telephone from Tromsø, Norway for an hour of music and conversation dedicated to Somby's place within the yoik tradition. They discuss yoik history, Somby's encounters with Malcolm McLaren, and his collaboration with Chris Watson.
At its core, yoiking is a deeply spiritual performance of the individual in concert with their natural environment. The dynamic, semi-improvised vocal tradition practiced by the indigenous Sami people of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland has been recognized as the oldest surviving in Europe.
Often it is an attempt to replicate or represent the sounds of animals, with the yoik of the wolf, yoik of the salmon, the mosquito yoik, etc. But just as often it is a means of storytelling. Kumpf plays music from Somby's 2016 album "Yoiking With The Winged Ones", the 1985 album Somby produced of his parents' yoiks, Inga Juuso, selections from the 1956 Folkways LP "Lappish Yoik Songs From Northern Norway", and a site-specific yoik composed by Somby for his upcoming Prismatic Park Residency—"new yoik".
Ánde Somby's Prismatic Park residency runs from July 11th to July 16th at Madison Square Park. It is free and open to the public.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Blank Forms
RADIO SERIES
Blank Forms is a curatorial platform dedicated to the presentation and preservation of time-based performance practices, with emphasis on ephemeral practices that fall outside conventional institutional support systems and consequently risk remaining inaccessible, minimally documented and obscure. Through a variety of curatorial approaches, including public performances, online and print publishing, exhibitions, workshops, seminars and residencies, Blank Forms crafts a robust support structure for both the artist and the presentation of their work.
more 
