The new joik revival

The Sami joik is one of Europe’s oldest music traditions with roots back to the Stone Age. For a long time it was prohibited by the church and the government, but has gradually been rebuilt and has now gotten its renaissance with among others Johan Sara Jr. as one of the foremost actors to preserve and develop a unique song tradition and one the main poles in Sami culture.

The Sami song tradition is characterised by short lyrics and few words, and traditionally it was related to a magical and spiritual way of expression. In older times joik was a central part of the Sami shaman’s, the noaidi’s, rituals, both in practising the pre-Christian religion and as a trance inducing medium. It is also said that joik has a soothing effect on reindeer and that it keeps predatory animals away. The joik has evolved through thousands of years with a nature’s own sounds, the wind, the tundra and the sounds of the animals, as a starting point.

The great interest for joik throughout the world may come from that joik spins out from an arch typical human trait from the nature human being. To understand joik it is necessary to understand the Sami people’s relationship with nature. A Sami person does not joik about something, but he joiks something and by using the joik he tries to create a similar image, for example about people, animals or places in nature. A joik may be endless. No words are necessary.

The spirituality of the joik

The joik is half improvised. This is to be understood the way that a joik quite simply forms in a person through his life in nature. The joik can as such not be viewed the same way as improvised song; it exists from the moment it is performed, even if it is adapted to the current situation. And as the joik functions as a background for free associations it would be disturbing with too many words. This gives the performer freedom to improvise and shape the joik to a personal statement and to a spiritual experience for the listener.

The joik has no beginning and no end. It is there always and has always been there, and sometimes you may experience that it is been taken a hold of and given an expression. When Johan Sara Jr. joiks he continues from the first note of a joik which an endless number of Samis have joiked together with him for thousands of years. The phrasal thinking of joik is therefore not like European music. The joik may start in the middle of a phrase. As such the joik has no exact starting point, but it is circular. Johan Sara Jr. continues through his special form of expression a thousand year old tradition by adapting the joik to his reality and his contemporary time.

The most vital factor is to distance oneself from the western European tradition that’s mainly based on skull resonance and timbre, and instead focus on applying the whole body as a soundboard.

Johan Sara Jr. has started out with the oldest joik tradition, the Kautokeino tradition, which is prehistoric music characterised by few words and great freedom.
The joik was historically among other things comments on changes in society, such as evangelising and colonisation. The Sami developed advanced double meanings where the real message, which often was to encourage opposition against the colonising force, was only perceived by a Sami audience.