Mari Boine Remixed

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The singer Mari Boine is something of a Norwegian national treasure, and is held in perhaps even higher regard by the Saami minority to which she belongs, spread across Lapland from the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and into northwest Russia. On this joyously successful remix CD, a broad range of unintrusive yet imaginative recontextualizings of her shamanistic song have been commissioned. International guests like Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble and equally well-known countrymen including Biosphere and Nils Petter Molvaer vie for the listener's attention alongside lesser-known Norwegian entities.

Wobble's remix is terrific; NPM's too; and Biosphere's pianistic colourations better still. Bill Laswell's version begins with a soft skank, which becomes a more bone-rattling skank with a big fat-bottomed bass while retaining a cool melodiousness with some lovely flute. But efforts by relative unknowns like Those Norwegians (suggestive violin breaks) and Mark de Clive-Lowe (spicy bossa nova) are just as classy. A neat little drum'n'bass thing by Future Prophesies sticks up it head before the journey ends off with a lovely ambient flourish by Phono. Regardless of the sounds and styles chosen, each and every of the remixers have treated Boine's incantations with due care and respect. A strong contender for your "remix CD of the year".