MUSIC TRAX
WORLD

JIENAT's release, MIRA, was recorded on a Finnish Island in an old parish hall, putting age-old sounds in a cutting-edge frame.  Drawing on everything from Sami (Laplander) joiking (a form of chant-like singing from an indigenous people in Scandinavia) and Finnish-style musical saw to Afro-Uruguayan rhythms and Argentine vendors' cries, the band's influences are obvious: West Africa, Sami culture, Bahia.  Norweigan multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Andreas Flifet is behind Jienat.  Mira conveys Fliflet's wry love for his Arctic home, for its crazy weather, white nights, rusty Russian trawlers, and herds of errant reindeer.  Fliflet muses, "While the recording technique is cutting edge, there is really nothing essential in the music that could not have been done 5.00 years ago- or 5,000 years from now."  Mira includes an audio-only Blu-Ray disc as well as a standard CD/high-def SACD.  www.jienat.com.