Oops! That can't be true!!?? The Frisians don't sing, do they?
Yes, indeed, as you can hear here. And they do it often and happily. However, they apparently never had any interest in recording their songs—at least, there are hardly any significant records. Was their music too valuable to them?
Thus, the duo jank frison (Frisian jank = very strong desire, French frison = Frisian, albeit with a French/Breton "look") chooses the path of creating new Frisian music, whose lyrics are oriented towards overarching fundamental Frisian values: freedom, connection to the land and the elements, the courage to be independent, and so on. The songs are sung in Saterland Frisian, Old Frisian, and Ostfreske Taal—the special East Frisian variant of Low German.
The music of Europe's salt coasts was originally strongly influenced by Celtic culture. Continental Celtic culture has been particularly vibrant and has spread again in Brittany. Today, one can still find musical and dance traditions that once existed around the Nordic Sea, from the Faroe Islands through Friesland to Brittany.
Jank Frison takes elements of this culture and reworks them, incorporating them into his own musical work. These include some Breton melodies, a preference for mythical-historical songs, and the rhythms of Brittany's rousing, meditative communal dances.
Jank frison are Heike Büsing (Great Highland bagpipe, small pipe, shepherd's pipe, crumhorn) and Stefan Carl em Huisken (vocals, accordion, guitar, bombarde, oboe).
01 Kloangstreke from Fräislound
02 God scop thene eresta meneska
03 Thursday here Sunday
04 Three young sailors
05 Freesk Runne
06 Free is the Moanske
07 Buhske di Remmer
08 Litje Toale
09 O Danneboom
10 Rungards Roos
11 Winter Moon
12 Janko van 't Holt
13 Freelance, so free
