Torgeir Vassvik
Oslo, Oslo County, Norway | MAJOR
Music
Press
Torgeir Vassvik is a magnetic and individual live performer, among the most fascinating and intense of Sámi contemporary joikers. How does that transfer to the purly audio medium of CD?
2006's Sáivu was produced by a major figure of the new minimalist Norwegian jazz, Arve Henriksen, and Vassvik worked very well with his characteristic apporoaches of Henriksen's misty trumpet and electronics over Anders Jormin's double bass and the clicking, rumbling, airy spaciousness of new-Norwegian percussion. Sápmi is his second album, the first with members of his current band, and continues in the minimalist, organic vein that, while often involving rhytmic patterns, very pleasingly eschews obvious rhythms or beat-applicationer. Vassvik´s own battered acoustic guitar makes appearances this time, together with the ingenious spoon-twanging instrument-modifications of guitarist and producer Jan Martin Smørdal, unusual double bass sound-extractions by Jo Berger Myrhe, percussion and touches of unconventional sound-making from violin, trumpet and sax.
The deep, winding guitar pattern of Fális-The Whale In The Stone, Inside The Birch Tree, underpinning dark, husky, edgy joiking alternating with episodes of trumpet and distant shouts, is followed in Uvvsot - Open by time - pausing stereo guitar-string-scratching and disturbing shifting, hissing drones with interjections of suppressed, mumbling, almost agonised joik. Later he uses Mongolian vocal technique, not the whistling overtone type but deep chest-grinding bass, again over an insistent acoustic guitar pattern; he's clearly found useful connections with the sounds and rhythms of other hard-winter peoples..
So the album successfully makes its own pictures, but try to see him live to get the full Vassvik exsperience. At FolkeLarm one director of several big festivals around
the world, bright-eyed and forsaking a booker's usual inscrutability, booked him on the spot; one hopes others, inkluding a British one, will follow suit.
Andrew Cronshaw- fRoots may 2010
- fRoots
by:Larm 2008:
'His voice, through the technique of throat singing and joik, is thick and wooden, and the heavy, bluesy sound of his ensemble - double bass, drums, tuba- emphasise the strength and raw simplicity of this expression. It's dark as asphalt and goes straight though us.
We cannot but become part of this rhythm, this voice.' -Jenny Hval
- By:larm news -Jenny Hval
‘His powerful delivery is rooted in a time before popular music, a time when song was in itself a force of Nature ... He balances tradition with imagination, with extraordinary results.’ – Aftenposten
 - Aftenposten
'With its modern timbres, the music comes over as original and exuberant, yet solemn. It’s as if this form of vocal expression pushes the listener closer to the dignified presence of the mysteries of life itself.’ – Dagbladet
 - Dagbladet
'A beautiful and unique gem.'
-Eyal Hareuveni, all about Jazz
- All about Jazz
‘Vassvik’s strong songs run the gamut from the ethereal beauty of Halo to the raw power of Siberia and Varg. His music draws inspiration from the traditions of the indigenous people beyond the Arctic circle, but retains a contemporary, urban edge.’– VG - VG
‘The term ‘world music’ can be applied to a number of diverse styles, perhaps even to Torgeir Vassvik’s debut Sáivu, one of the most intriguing albums we’ve encountered for quite some time at the intersection of vocal and traditional music, contemporary sounds and improvisation. Sáivu is indefinable, yet intimate and personal. There is a strength to the songs and an expansive beauty to the moods that defies categorization and creates a unique musical experience. On the face of it, the record contains passages in four different languages, but behind the Sami, Norwegian, English and French one discerns elements of a world language that positions Sáivu in the collective consciousness, regardless of language, geography and target audiences.’ – Mode Steinkjer, Dagsavisen
 - Mode Steinkjer, Dagsavisen

Discography
Sáivu(06), Sápmi (09)
- Vassvik at YouTube: 03.10.2013 at Riksscenen Oslo Norway.
http://youtu.be/q-4bIADBchQ
Photos
Bio
Welcome!
Sami music in general and our music in particular, have a huge international potential. We want to fully utilize this and create a growing international audience.
It’s an innovative music project where the unique Sami joik is the foundation of the
unfolding experience. We are innovative musicians with great musical skills and a deep
respect for the Sámi musical heritage creating new expressions in a dynamic and organic
way. It’s acoustic music in a free flowing and thriving format, with musicians mastering a
broad range of music genres like contemporary, jazz, improvisation, pop and indie rock and
everything in between.
Torgeir Vassvik From the northernmost point of the Norwegian mainland Gamvik in
Finnmark has released two CD’s Sáivu, 2006 and Sápmi, 2009.
Both albums received rave reviews in Norway, Europe and USA.
Our music is often described as powerful, dreamy and innovative, delivering a unique
experience to the listener. We perform in a quartet format, and have created a band based on
material from the two CD’s Sáivu and Sápmi. This venture has been very successful and we
have performed a series of concerts both in Norway, and abroad, with high artistic content
and great audience appeal.
Torgeir Vassvik
is a magnetic and individual live performer, among the most
fascinating and intense of Sámi contemporary joikers. Vassvik ´s
own battered acoustic guitar makes appearances this time, together with the ingenious spoon-twanging instrument-modifications of guitarist and producer Jan Martin Smørdal. Vassvik have clearly found useful connections with the sounds and rhythms of other hard-winter peoples..
Try to see him live to get the full Vassvik exsperience.
At FolkeLarm one director of several big festivals around
the world, bright-eyed and forsaking a booker's usual inscrutability, booked him on the spot; one hopes others, inkluding a British one, will follow suit.
Andrew Cronshaw- fRoots
Download Sáivu and Sápmi at iTunes !
-live-
'His voice, through the technique of throat singing and joik, is thick and wooden, and the heavy, bluesy sound of his ensemble - emphasise the strength and raw simplicity of this expression. It's dark as asphalt and goes straight though us. We cannot but become part of this rhythm, this voice.' --Jenny Hval
Vassvik has performed extensively in concerts and festivals in Norway and abroad, including the Tromsø International Jazz Festival, the Festival of North Norway, Norwegian Tapas, Belgium, Sound of the North in Gdansk, the Sami Winter Festival, the Easter Festival in Kautokeino, Mytofest in Estonia, Màrkomeannu, La Pamparina Thiers, L’annee des VOIX, the Cultural Rucksack in Oslo and Akershus, Musique de Laponie – Sami Music at the Universities of Paris, Caen and Lyon, and “Dembildei” in Kyzyl, Siberi
http://www.myspace.com/torgeirvassvik
Booking:
Torgeir Vassvik
+47 47 85 86 47
torgeirvassvik@gmail.com
The Sami vocal expression known as the joik is probably the oldest living musical tradition in Europe. Some scholars think that this unique way of chanting can be traced back as far as the Stone Age. This is disputed, but the similarities with other arctic indigenous peoples' musical traditions are unmistakable, and this suggests roots that date back to times when Sámi, Inuit and Siberian peoples were close. The most important aspect of a joik is not its form but its function and originally the most important purpose was coming into contact with the supernatural. But the joik also relates to more everyday things as a means of reminiscence or of "making present". To fathom this one must understand that a joik is not about something, one does not e.g. joik about a person, but rather joiks the person. A personal joik is like a name by being a confirmation of identity. The same kind of invocation is true regarding joiks of places, of elements, of animals, nature and narratives; joiking is a way of opening the mind to the thing itself, and of experiencing unity. A joik is very often improvised and something that appears only semi-intentionally, as a response and as a kind of field of free association. ?The function of a joik entails that its form is not rigid and that normal musical or narrative structures do not really apply. In general one can say that the vocal technique makes use predominantly of the lower register of vocal range. The vocal chords are tight and the sound compressed. The tonality is simple from a western musical point of view, with repeated and limited motions. The rhythm varies from regular patterns to abrupt changes. Originally words were not important, since the melody, the rhythm and the hypnotic repetitions were meaningful in themselves. The special otherworldly, trance-inducing and dreamlike qualities of the joik have won fans around the world, and the status of the joik is, if anything, on the rise. So comrades the joik story continues. Go on and on and on and...
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