Greenland - Part I

 For the next leg of our virtual journey we need to take a plane or hitch a ride on a fishing boat from Iceland to Greenland.  It's the largest non-continental island in the world, which geographically belongs to the North American continent, but politically is part of Denmark, with a population of only about 56,000.Donald Trump famously wanted to buy it off Denmark, but the Greenlanders were not massively impressed.  The population is made up of 89.5% indigenous Inuit and the climate is raw.  The settlements are connected by plane or a ferry service that runs once a week and fishing is the main economic activity with no roads in the interior.  Musically there is a surprising amount of it being put out.  Traditionally the frame drum and shamanic chanting are the main forms of musical entertainment, but various modern influences are now predominant.

Now, given the harsh climate and long winter nights, Greenland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, so I suppose they need to let off some steam every now and then and heavy metal and hard rock feature heavily in the music scene.  So we start our trip in the far northwest of the country in the town Uummannaq, situated on a rocky island and the northernmost ferry terminal in Greenland (and apparently where Santa Claus lives...), where heavy metal band Siissisoq hail from.  They were formed in 1994 and are one of most popular rock bands in Greenland.  Their name means rhino in Greenlandic and all their lyrics are in Greenlandic.  Heavy Metal is not my favourite genre, but we'll play you some to represent the north of Greenland.  This a song called Tunersuilo, not sure where you'd get the album:

Next we are taking the ferry southwards along the west coast of Greenland to arrive in Maniitsoq, where singer-songwriter Rasmus Lyberth was born in 1951.  His music style can best be described as jazz influenced pop-rock with a definite Greenlandic character.  He is one of the most popular artists in the Greenlandic music scene.  On his latest 2019 album Inuunerup opafigaanga/Livet skal leves på ny he includes a climate song in Greenlandic (with helpful English subtitles), a subject that affects this part of the world harder than elsewhere: 

There isn't much I can find out about folk accordionist Louis Andreasen, except that he was from somewhere in Greenland and died in 1988 aged 71.  However some of his music has survived in recorded form such as this polka called Saqisaaq which features on the Rough Guide to Scandinavian Music released in 2000:

In 1976 a Greenlandic rock band formed that initiated the start of a velvet revolution.  They were called Sumé (which means where in Greenlandic), and although they started off in Denmark, they were the first band to sing highly political songs in the Greenlandic language advocating independence from Denmark.  Whilst they haven't succeeded in their ultimate goal, Greenland now has a high degree of autonomy.  Their debut album Sumat (where to) was bought by 20% of the Greenlandic population and gained iconic status in the country.  In 2014 a film was released called Sumé - The Sound of a Revolution, documenting the story of the band and its influence on Greenlandic history.  Here is the trailer:

Here's a live version of their song Innuneq (with helpful Danish subtitles...), which features on their 1977 self-titled album:

That's it from Greenland for the moment, next we are visiting the capital Nuuk and the south of the country.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map as usual.