The musician and yoik composer

The older he became the more Nils-Aslak Valkeapää valued the traditional yoik. Valkeapää was a wholly central actor in the revitalization of the traditional Sámi yoik. Several of his publications can be characterized as yoik compositions, where the yoik goes into a higher unity of the entire musical work of art. He was awarded the Prix Italia for the composition Goase dušše (The bird symphony) in 1993. He says about the yoik’s function that it is a route to social contact. “A way to calm reindeer. To frighten wolves. The yoik is used to recall friends, even enemies.” The yoik was also a step into another world – and that makes it religious.

(Harald Gaski 2014)