Arild Sætre: THE ORIGINAL SOUND

Ulla Pirttijärvi - photographed by Oddleiv Apneseth in 2017.

Text: Arild Sætre

The sound is clear and powerful. It fills the entire large hall. It is almost unbelievable that the small person on stage can fill an entire sports hall with the sound of her own voice. You see that it is a person who shapes the sound with her voice, but the power of the yoik is so strong that you simultaneously realize that the small lady on stage is a mediator of something much greater.

You close your eyes. Then the images come. Wide open spaces and mountain landscapes in the distance. The landscape fills you. You become strangely one with it. You feel the wind singing over the wide spaces. When you open your eyes again you see pan flutes. The small South American Indians have brought the wind with them from the mountain landscapes of South America. In a strange way it feels as if it is nature itself that is singing to you. You become one with the tones and disappear into the soundscape again.

Suddenly, it snaps like a whiplash. It hits you in the diaphragm. The pain fills your entire body. You open your eyes and see that it was the sound of a rasping guitar. Then comes another blow. Sharp and precise, it hits you in the stomach region. It is the sound of the Argentine bandoneon.

Photo: Heidi Hattestein

You lean back and try to relax. But it bangs again. When you open your eyes, you see them. The tango dancers. They dance so close. Will always be drawn to each other. But they never reach each other. You feel the yearning they pray for. The pain. The feeling of being so close, yet so far away. An unbearable longing.

“ They dance so close. They are constantly being pulled towards each other. But they never reach each other. ”

A loud scream fills the large hall. You squirm in your chair. The clarinet screams once more. Then it is followed by a trumpet. Then someone sings. The air vibrates. The feeling of rebellion and anger fills your body. Rebellion against injustice and oppression. You feel the despair and anger in the music. The Klezmer musicians sing, play and dance a revolution against all injustice and oppression.

Suddenly the mood changes completely. Laughter and dancing fill the room. A banjo laughs, a fiddle sings and the accordion cheers out notes. You feel an inexplicable joy that fills you whole. A joy to exist. You want to dance. Praise life and music.

It becomes quiet. You feel as if you are landing inside yourself again. Where did all these feelings come from? Then you understand. It is you yourself that you have heard. It is your own feelings that you have felt. The feelings that we all have. The feeling of being at one with nature. The longing for closeness and love. Anger and rebellion against all injustice and oppression and not least joy in life.

“ They want to tell us that there is a primal tone deep within all of us. ”

This is what all the musicians who come from all corners of the world want to tell us. That we all pray for the same feelings. That we are bound together by the same feelings. That these feelings exist in music and that they can be conveyed through our common language – music. They want to tell us that there is a primal tone deep within us all.

URNA from Mongolia, returns to Førdefestivalen this year.

When we come into contact with the primal tone within ourselves, we understand everything. How everything is connected. That we are all strangely bound together in the same primal tone. When everyone understands this, there can be no more war. Then everyone will understand that going to war against others is the same as going to war against oneself. Nothing is more meaningless than that.

“ When we understand this, we all become peacemakers. Then we have found the primal tone within ourselves. ”

This is what all musicians have understood. This is what those who organize music festivals have understood. This is what all the volunteers who work to make the festival happen have noticed. This is what we who go to the concerts can experience. That we all belong together. That we are bound together by the same note. When we understand this, we all become peacemakers. Then we have found the primal note within ourselves.