Sumé – Sumut (1973, Greenland)
Our next spotlight is on number 383 on The List, submitted by myself (buffyleigh).
As with our last spotlight, I came across this one while specifically searching for cool albums to include in The List. A year later, it remains one of my favourite finds for both the project and, well, ever.
Sumé was the first Greenlandic rock band in Greenland, making Sumut, their debut, to be the first rock album released in the Greenlandic language, i.e., their own language rather than the language of the Danish colonizers. Even without looking into what the lyrics mean, that language choice plus the intense artwork – a reproduction of a 19th century woodcutting by Aron of Kangeq that depicts an Inuit person standing over a Norseman they had just killed – clues the listener into the fact that this album was making a political statement.
In fact the album – released just 6 years before a referendum that would gain Greenland home rule and therefore greater autonomy from Denmark (who had ruled the island since 1814) – would become a key part in Greenland’s fight for independence from Danish rule. The lyrics were revolutionary, presenting the political concerns of the Greenlandic people as well as simply using their own voice and not the skewed (i.e., racist) voice of white colonizers to depict the day-to-day lives of Inuit people. Check out some snippets below:[1]
Track 1 – “Pivfît Nutât” (“New Times”)
I wake up – I’ve been sleeping for a long time
They tell me two and half days have gone by for two and half centuries
I realise that they’re still here
They are here to get rich and to oppress us
Greenland, “The Lands of the People”
You can’t keep sheltering your children from harm
New times have begun
The old days we have left behind
Track 4 – “Tamorassâriat” (“The First Bite of the Seal”)
My father is a great hunter
He arrives with a big catch
Those who want the first bite of the seal rush down to the beach
To get a good treat
The first bite of the seal
Track 7 – “Erĸasûteĸarneĸ” (“Worry”)
Always a colony
Always oppressed
Leadership missing
Makes you blind
Never turn your back and be silent
Track 10 – “Ukiaĸ” (“Spring”)
The Earth, because it’s always spinning
The great day darkens
Nature is transforming
My love is putting on her warm coat
…
The flower is already getting brown
And I learn that’s the way it is
Like my friend
Without hiding, it becomes the soil
…
That poor kayak, it loses its skin
Deteriorated by time
Naked, it becomes a skeleton
Its time has come
Track 11 – “Nalunaerasuartaut Toĸuvoĸ” (“The Telegraph is Dead”)
The telegraph is dead
Connection failed
What is happening in the world?
Is there peace out there?
Apparently 20%(!) of Greenland’s entire population bought Sumut. And it’s not that surprising as, apart from the lyrics that inspired the Greenlandic people to take political action, the album sounds damn good. Sumé’s style, fusing psychedelic/prog rock with some traditional Inuit sounds (particularly from drum dances), would have a great impact on future Greenlandic rock, which remains a huge genre in the country.
The band would release two more albums soon after Sumut (Inuit Nunaat in 1974 and a s/t in 1976), and then reunited in 1994 for one last album, Persersume. Twenty years later, following the first reissue of Sumut, Sumé – Mumisitsinerup Nipaa (“Sumé – The Sound of a Revolution“) was released, a 2014 Greenlandic documentary from director Inuk Silis Høegh that celebrates the band, the album, and their impact on Greenlandic history.
Methinks, given *all of this*, it’s a good time to give this album a spin.
- English translations aren’t in the liner notes, so these are from Genius. Hopefully they’re correct. ↩︎
