UUMMAT Revisited: INUA

Just about one year has passed since I returned from Greenland. Outside, the fjord has just been frozen, and Uummat has just been released on digital services. It’s as great a time as any to dig into the different songs and revisit them, now that it is easy for all to listen - in the UUMMAT REVISITED series, I will tell you about each of the songs on the album.

In Inuit mythology exists a phenomenon called INUA. It tells that everything has a soul, and men and animals are equal….. I really really like this ideology, and I think it’s noticeable that an old culture like the Inuit one has a mindset about nature that we need more than ever today in the “modern” world.

So much respect is shown to nature in Greenland….. There is a custom that the hunters pour water into a slaughtered animals mouth, in order for their soul not to get thirsty…..
Imagine how far that is from the slaughterhouses here in Denmark.

I´m not a climate or animal activist myself, but I like to learn….. And one of the best ways to learn is to witness these things with my own eyes….. It´s so beautiful to experience how nature is a part of everyday life up there north of the polar circle.
And it makes sense… standing on the Uummannaq hill looking towards the Icecap is a view I will never forget. It is so white, wide and wild, and yet so epic and quiet at the same time. Preserving the Icecap is probably not something that anyone would discuss.

This also shows in the slaughtering process…. everything from the animal is kept and used. Fur boots, amulets, food etc. etc…. nothing is wasted.

I wanted to portray this type of relationship towards beings and nature with this piece of music.

I felt like it needed space and quietness but still a constant thing that would move throughout the piece. The viola and the cello plays a quintuplet ostinato that is later moved around in the ensemble and changes to 6 and 7 subdivisions instead of 5.

Everything around the ostinato should move, just like nature does. I wanted dynamics and harmonies to be the color of the music. They move in 3 different places.

On top of it all, I asked Undine and Yana to create an angelic sound that would be constant throughout the piece. So even though the band changes subdivisions, they would stay on the same melody.

The band is so dynamic. It was fun to be creative post-production to make the ending, which is produced. This happened in the process. We tried to go free with the ensemble in a swing jazzy way, but that felt very artificial. Instead, I worked with producer Lucas Illanes on creating an ending with synths. I also think that conveys the message of nature being taken over by humans, acoustic over by machines, organic by produced….
I just hope that we can keep one of the most beautiful places on our planet as it is for a very long time…. but until we turn this climate ship around???

I hope you enjoy it!