Yana Mangi: Earth Shadow (2010)

Swedish composer and vocalist YANA MANGI has been active in the music business since the late 90's, at first as a member of various bands and then later as a solo artist. Her forte has been representation concerts, the blend of traditional Sami yoik with contemporary pop/rock music being a sought after item for Swedish firms that have desired to showcase something exotic yet uniquely Nordic that also resonates positively in an international setting. "Earth Shadow" is her first solo album, and was issued by Sakuntala Records in the spring of 2010.

With the above description, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the material offered on this disc is mainstream oriented material. The yoik is the red thread of this effort, all the compositions are based around this vocal tradition to a lesser or greater extent. An additional trait frequently utilized are energetic, tribal-inspired rhythms, which does add a world music dimension when featured. The compositions themselves represent a rather great variety of stylistic expressions - from the mellow, Beatles-inspired The Sun, the hard rock-tinged landscapes explored in Nåjden, symphonic backdrops and art pop tendencies can be found in opening effort Sökare, while spacey drones and vocals in a more sparse setting close this disc in final track Promises. These as four examples that to some extent represent the outer boundaries of the diversity represented.

All the tracks comes across as mainstream oriented affairs though, as they are relatively short, there's a substantial amount of repetition of themes and motifs, and at least on this occasion Yana Mangi doesn't utilize the unique nature of the Sami music tradition in a manner that can be described as unique or even adventurous, at least as seen from the perspective of a progressive rock reviewer. Indeed, my main impression as that the artist aims to bring her cultural heritage to the masses with this production, and perhaps has a desire to modernize it as well. Taking it out from the museum and into the real world, stage and FM radio if you like.

Personally I find this material to be a bit too mainstream oriented to truly fascinate. A few exceptions aside I find this CD to consist of radio friendly, catchy material. In a perfect world she should have been able to harvest a few top 10 singles out of this album, as there are quite a few songs here with what was once described as hit potential. Besides a mainstream oriented audience, I'd guess that fans of artists like Kate Bush might take a liking to this production. Not because of stylistic similarities, as these are vastly different artists, but due to the common denominator they both share: The dreamlike, slightly otherworldly moods and atmospheres they both create, each in their own way.

My rating: 67/100