Nordic Jazz 08: Kristian Blak's Island Music

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The two-day Nordic Jazz 08 festival — held on the House of Sweden's roof, overlooking the Potomac — kicks off on Thursday, and all this week readexpress.com will feature interviews with the excellent artists performing there. First up, composer Kristian Blak from Denmark's Faroe Islands. The classically trained, jazz-leaning Blak performs with his group Yggdrasil, which incorporates Nordic folk music into its nature-influenced sound.

» EXPRESS: Express 5 things we should know about the Faroe Islands, which the CIA's World Factbook says is "eight times the size of Washington, D.C."
» BLAK: 1. Faroe Islands is an island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean equidistant from Norway and Iceland and Hebrides. So it has a central position in the North Atlantic.
2. Faroese people moved mainly from Norway around 1,200 years ago, hence the Norse language Faroese.
3. [Population] 48,000. There are about 20,000 Faroese in other countries, working, studying.
4. Music has always filled the mind of Faroese people — in tradition there are 80,000 verses of song-ballads in the "general" brain. Nowadays there is a flowering artistic activity. Two, three, four CDs a month are released; art exhibitions, theater.
5. The natural scenery is unique. Ocean, mountains and sky create the contrasts.

» EXPRESS: What led you to move to the Faroe Islands from Denmark?
» BLAK: I moved to Faroe to see a new place that I did not know and worked here for one year. I stayed because it so much fun, and challenging, and international contacts here are very direct and personal — you may not believe it, but so it is/was.

» EXPRESS: What does Yggdrasil mean?
» BLAK: In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the World Tree. The branches of the mighty ash reach up above the heavens, and its three roots pass into the realms of the Æsir and of the frost giants and descend deep into the underworld. In the very top of Yggdrasil sits the wise eagle, keeping watch. The three Norns water and nurture the tree each day, while the great serpent Niohogg, together with a host of lesser snakes, gnaws at its root. Thus the tree is in a state of cosmic equilibrium, constantly threatened and devoured as it grows and flourishes.

Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is all-encompassing; Yggdrasil, the ensemble, has a repertoire that encompasses a wide range of genres — from free jazz to classical — and expressions — from humor and beauty to disaster and destruction. We also play Inuit, Sami and Native Indian music.

» EXPRESS: What are some of the characteristics that make traditional Faroese skjaldur, ballads and hymns different from those in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark?
» BLAK: As to the styles: These purely vocal genres, can be found in most areas, but the skjaldur, ballads, hymns have over several hundred years reach own identity. Not one identity, however, as in older times these were very local from village to village, and even individually creative. This is becoming history, but we have knowledge to these variations. Ethnic music from Faroe is an immense source of inspiration. Being used in classical compositions — as compositional material — rock, jazz, world, folk.

» EXPRESS: Are there still traces of Irish music in Faroese folk tunes?
» BLAK: Well, like most of the world there are Irish influences in folk music here. If you [are thinking] of the first settlements [here] before year 1,000, there are no musical traces.

Some think, however, that ballad dancing and singing came via the British Isles as well as the Nordic countries. The origin is though central Europe, but here we talk about medieval movements. The skjaldur are pentatonic, but that is a universal language.

» EXPRESS: You've performed in caves, cathedrals and the woods, as well as on old wooden boats at sea — will this be your first time on a roof?
» BLAK: Well, our own house has a grass roof. We have played there. But this will be first performance on a tall building — don't know how tall, but taller than Faroese houses, I suppose.

» EXPRESS: Any plans to incorporate nature into the D.C. performance as you do with concerts at home?
» BLAK: We [will] perform "Ravnating," so if the DVD thing works, we [will] play nature-based music. Also, we use a CD player [in the composition], playing the "song" of a raven that we interviewed in Faroe 1982. We will also try to see what sounds and clouds are around us in D.C.

» House of Sweden, 2900 K. St. NW; Thu., 7:30 p.m., $25 (or $40 for both nights); 202-467-2600. (Foggy Bottom)

Sound clips from Kristian Blak's Yggdrasil:
» "The Eagle"
» "Rivals"
» More at Amazon.com

Up next: Wildbirds and Peacedrums (Tuesday), Iro Haarla (Wednesday) and Ola Kvernberg (Thursday).