Singles

Adjagas - Mun Ja Mun

Matt Harrold 20/11/2006

Rating: 4/5

Adjagas is apparently the state where your mind is half in between being asleep and existing in the waking world (most likely to be achieved after ten pints of beer and a kebab from dodgy derricks). It also happens to the name of the band fronted by Sara Marielle Gaup and Lawra Somby who are currently combining joik, the traditional Saami singing style, with their own twist on folk music. Let it not be said that GIITTV doesn't do it's part in educating you! 'Mun Ja Mun' is odd to say the least but in the very best sense of the word. Lawra's singing if I was to give it a reference point, is fairly close to the mournful chants of the American Indians.

Which doesn't make it the ideal party track, but once Sara's soft backing vocals join in it gathers a warmth and a melody that you'd be hard pushed not to find inviting. Coupled with some delicate instrumentation, electric guitars are gently plucked or shimmer in the background whilst acoustic guitars chime onwards and upwards, a near perfect crystalline soundscape is formed. Conjuring up images of vast frozen wastelands and snow capped mountains. Adjagas may not make music for the masses but for anyone willing to throw caution to the wind there's a hell of a view from the top of the summit they're sitting on.