Sámi group Ulda is touring the US this week. The group, who perform modern music based on traditional Sámi chants called yoik, will play 4 shows during the tour.

Regarding the expectations for the US tour, band’s founder and vocalist Ulla Pirttijärvi commented: “We’ll get to perform modern Sámi music to new audiences. Most likely they don’t have experience regarding Sámi music, but on the other hand the music of American indigenous people is probably performed a lot.”

Ulda’s string-instrument player and percussionist Marko Jouste said about the band’s future plans: “After the US tour in May we’ll be playing shows at various festivals, and in addition we’ll have gigs in Norway and Sweden. In the fall we’ll play a special concert at the Tromsø Silent Film festival, in which our music accompanies the silent film Noidan Kirot.”

“During the summer we’ll also mix our second album, titled Roijk, which was recorded last winter. Album’s release date is set for October, which will be followed by an album release tour,” Jouste added.

Besides the active times with Ulda, Ulla Pirttijärvi has been working on other projects as well. This spring Pirttijärvi formed a duo called Solju with her daughter Hilda. The duo took part in the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (“New Music Contest”), a music contest whose winner gets to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest. Solju landed on the third place in the contest, and according to Pirttijärvi the contest was a success since “the contest brought large visibility and new recognition to both my music and Sámi music in general,” Pirttijärvi said.

US tour dates 

• May 3 Swedish American Museum, Chicago, USA
• May 5 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin, USA
• May 8 Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study Annual Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, USA
• May 9 Scandinavia House, New York, USA

Festival dates 

• June 20 Harstad, Arts Festival of North Norway, Norway
• July 5 Førdefestivalen, Norway
• July 23 Parkteatern, Stockholm, Sweden