Vajas

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Vajas, meaning echo in North Sámi, was a Sámi-Norwegian band with Kristin Mellem on violin and vocals, Nils Johansen on guitars, computers, and synthesizers, and Ánde Somby on vocals and yoik (joik). The group debuted in 2003 and toured internationally. Their first album, Sacred Stone, was released in October 2006. The band planned to distribute the album in Germany and the United Kingdom, with other countries to follow. In 2009, a small YouTube fad featured remakes or lip-syncs to the song "Sparrow of the Wind."

Kristin Mellem is a classically trained composer and violinist who has worked on many projects, composing and performing for both small groups and full orchestras. Ánde Somby is a Sami yoiker (joiker) who has performed since the late 1970s and also has a Ph.D. in Law; he works in academia at the University of Tromsø in Norway. Nils Johansen is a musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, and a member of the Norwegian pop/indie duo Bel Canto. He has been active in the international music scene since the mid-1980s, composing for film, television, and orchestras, and wrote the opening number for the debut of Norway’s radio channel P3.

Somby lived with Kristin Mellem from 2003 to 2007, and they have a child born in 2005. Somby also has two children from a previous marriage, born in 1980 and 1988, and is the father of Lawra Somby, who yoiks in the duo Adjagas.