There are three main reasons why The Faroe Islands are so special to me. I will not rank them, as they depend on each other, but I tell you, that you never experienced people, traditions and nature like you do here. And then there's the combination, when wonderful people do traditional stuff in spectacular surroundings!
Ólavsøkudagur
Being proud of their Norwegian ancestry, the Faroese tend to guard the traditions better than we do. To honour a long gone, once common king Olav - the holy Saint Olav - they have their biggest annual celebration in late summer in his memory. They actually made it their National Holiday (never mind the Danes), and the party goes on for three days, with July 29th being the main thing.
beloved Brynhild (hif)
true Faroese ...
... and "Faroein"
Rowing competition
Again based on old Norwegian customs, there is a Faroe Championship in rowing the "færing", a slender rowing boat for six to ten rowers plus cox. There are classes for youngsters, female and male and the teams have been through a cup every weekend the last two months, before the grand final in Thorshavn the 28th of June, as Olavsøka begins.
Esbern í Eyðansstovu
Stockholm Syndrome Medal
open home...
Chain dancing
It is hard to describe all the simultaneous events going on through the days, but choir singing, concerts and speeches are an important part of it, as well as happily mingling in and around the houses in Thorshavn. This all culminates with massive participation at midnight, when a considerable amount of songs are sung with all verses, bottles are emptied and armes are hooked into each other for an impressive group - no, mass - chain dance. Gotta s
ee it to believe it. It continues into the night in Sjónleikarhúsið and is something you will never forget.
Ehhh... late at night, this is what you might end up in (called "gladfylla" in Norwegian):
You did remember to click on the photos, right, to see them better?
Eivør Palsdottir, or rather Eivør Pálsdóttir as they write it in the Faroe Islands, was introduced to Kristian Blak (see the episode Kristian Blak) as her parents suspected that her vocal potential was out of the ordinary. Kristian immediately recognised her unique talent, and this was the beginning to her career, touring Italy at the age of twelve, releasing the first CD at 16. She's got a fine website and an album being released this month, check out Eivør.com.
Eivørs brand new album " Bridges "
a mentality to help
I had never heard of the girl, but got a tip and was allowed to surprise her band as they were jamming. This is just one of the peculiar examples of how the Faroese never gave me a "no" when I asked for help in any form. They certainly need you to ask, if not you get no help at all, but as soon as you make your request clear, the solution is right there. Never seen anything like it.
So, as I uttered a wish to see where Eivør actually is from, she called her parents who arranged a surprise super-dinner for me. Her cosy dad (peace be upon him) served whale meat hunted by himself. Later, Eivør sat down with her drum to sing for me by the sea. Not once, as we were not really satisfied with the first attempt, but twice, in spite of her experiencing extremely busy times, recording the album "Larva" in between concerts in three continents.
on the big stage
After I returned from the Faroe Islands, she was doing a tour of Norway with our famous band Vamp and Kringkastingsorkesteret - an explosive combination. I was welcome to shoot them in Oslo Spectrum, where Eivør was exactly the same kind personality as I had gotten to know in her little village Göta, out there on the remote islands in the North Atlantic.
Eivør Pálsdóttir anno 2009
the Faroese
From all my experience with Eivør, I have to say she has my greatest respect as a person, with all the small flaws and challenges that includes. I am very grateful to her totally lovely family and wonderful manager Sigvør Laksá, who is actually her neighbour. Sigvør gave me a bed for the night and left it to me to wake up her unknowing teenage daughter early in the morning. Can you imagine having a bearded stranger leaning over you when you wake up after a late party night? The girl was totally cool about it, adding to my admiration of the Faroese mentality. They're something else.
VAMP - "I full symfoni II"
A big thank to VAMP!
Vamp was worried that my sound recording from Spectrum would be below their standards, which it most certainly would be, so they let me use their own sound and I mixed some of their shots with mine. I owe you guys a big one for that, and hope the result pleases everybody! What a great bunch you are.
and...
... one more thing. During the editing, it occurred to me, that Eivør were actually flirting in my direction. This theory I aired for Sigvør, when talking on the phone.
"-No she did not," she replied very promptly.
"-Well how do you know? You have not seen the clip!" I wondered.
The answer was simple: "-We don't flirt in the Faroes."
I had to laugh, kind of relieved. "-So you mean, the fact that I had no luck with women during my three months on the island do not have to mean they they did not like me?"
"-Not at all."
It takes a while to understand the ways over there. Good luck with it. And enjoy the episode.
Here's one of Eivør's music videos. Now tell me what you think of that voice?!
The Faroe Islands have an extremely rich musical culture. The local shop in Thorshavn is a good place to start. Here I met Kristian Blak, who runs the record company with the same name as the shop, Tutl. It means the trickling sound of water in Faroe Language. Like the most tender sound of nature.
These natural sounds are the sources of inspiration for Kristian when he compose. This guy is much like the hub in the musical life on the islands, a world traveller, singer, band organiser. Yggdrasil and Spelemennene are two of his groups. He simply lives for music - and he is a wonderful person to get to know. I will cut it short, and leave it to this weeks episode to show what a peculiar fellow I was fortunate to befriend.
As if Kristian was not nice enough in himself, the event Sommartonleikar brought me in touch with more musicians, that went on a tour to the most insane places for concerts, hardly inhabited. The musicians outnumbered the audience, even with a stunning 80% of the locals attending. There were local contributors as well as foreign, and I especially fell in love with the mainly Danish choir "Vokalselskabet GLAS".
Vokalselskabet Glas på Mykines ... and me ;)
Vokalselskabet GLAS
This choir is totally awesome, and Birgir Enni, captain of Norðlýsið took us to the caves and bird mountains of Hestur, where we made this rough, but I think beautiful video:
Vokalselskabet GLAS in cave in Hestur
Aren't they just something? And then one sunny day, a big black Irish boat, the Galway Hooker" Mac Duach" came into port, with four beardy Irishmen that were in sorrow. A good friend of theirs had drowned back in Ireland the very same day. We decided to cheer them up, and got a night I will never forget. The ships hull was loaded with music and joy, in respect for their pal and of life. It went on and on and on ... bulgarian folk songs, the Beatles, Irish fiddle ... anything you could mention, Kristian, the girls or the Irish just performed. I have to admit I love this Bulgarian wedding song, you you decide the place you prefer, at sea under thousands of birds or in the old Irish boat. I must excuse the raw look, it is simply filmed with my pocket camera.
Like some kind of universal jukebox. What a night! Thank you all!
