Per Bloch (Denmark) – Vindborin (Windblown) ft. Lea Kampmann (Faroe Islands) (single)

‘Vindborin’ is the third and last in a trilogy of songs released by the multilingual polymath Per Bloch. “Three months, three singles, three languages” he proudly proclaims. He might have added “three head scratchings” to describe reviewers like me that have tried to make sense of them. The first was in Greek and Danish and the last one was in Greenlandic. Or perhaps it was Martian.

He rounds off the trilogy with ‘Vindborin’, which is Faroese (that’s the language of the Faroe Islands, nothing to do with the Pharaohs) for windblown. And there’s plenty of wind up there in the Atlantic, coming off the sea. That’s not to mention the extensive sheep population.

He bumped into Lea Kampmann at a festival in Greenland and ended up singing on the same stage. She has recently featured here in NMC, too, singing about the little village she grew up and her grandma.

Eventually, they decided to write a song together in Faroese, which Lea would help Per to sing.

The song is about the fear of letting go of control and daring to trust that you will be caught. By yourself, by others, or by greater forces.

She says, “It was exciting to write lyrics in Faroese, with someone who doesn’t understand the language.” Boy, tell me about it. The English only speak one language. And not very well, either.

(In fact Per intends that his next song will be in another language he doesn’t yet speak and will have to learn. Martian might yet crop up, who knows?)

But it seems it all worked out well in the end, “like floating in the wind”, she adds.

Lea says she would like all Danish children to learn Greenlandic and Faroese (the two countries are semi autonomous Danish dependencies) just like the kids in those countries have to learn Danish.

The way things are going – there is a lot of lyrical output in Faroese in the music from there although Greenland still lags behind -I reckon the Danish kids will be able to learn the language just from the songs.

Turns out the song is like a Faroese version of ‘Wuthering Heights’, set out on the wily, windy fjord, but with Lea’s comforting dulcet tones rather than Kate’s piercing ones.

It’s a slow burner which builds, by way of a short but powerful instrumental/vocal interjection about a minute in, from a gentle acoustic ballad with enchanting strings over the guitar to something much more powerful; not too detached from an anthem in fact.

And you’ll never hear a female musician chant ‘hey”!’ so, well, sexily. (Although an insider tells me it could be either of the duo, or even both)! As they say in the lyrics, “Sometimes I can’t hear whether it’s you or me singing” a repetition of a spontaneous shout out by Lea Kampmann during the recording.

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