Angelit

Angelit is a finnish sámi music group of two siblings Ursula and Tuuni Länsman. The group used to be called Angelin tytöt until the year 1997. They have also released some albums under the name Girls of Angeli. Angelit come from the village of Angeli in the municipality of Inari, one of the few purely Sámi villages in Northern Finland. better known as Lapland. The entire population of Angeli are native speakers of Sámi. They make their living mainly by reindeer husbandry. The nearest shop is 70 kilometres away.

Angelit is a finnish sámi music group of two siblings Ursula and Tuuni Länsman. The group used to be called Angelin tytöt until the year 1997. They have also released some albums under the name Girls of Angeli. Angelit come from the village of Angeli in the municipality of Inari, one of the few purely Sámi villages in Northern Finland. better known as Lapland.

The entire population of Angeli are native speakers of Sámi. They make their living mainly by reindeer husbandry. The nearest shop is 70 kilometres away. In 1982, Eino Ukkonen, a Finnish teacher, took a Sámi-speaking class to sing at a Sámi festival in Utsjoki.

This group included Ursula and Tuuni Länsman among four other girls and a boy. Thus the history of the group spans 15 years to date! Their first non-commercial recording was released in 1987. It was a Christmas tape that was recorded together with Mari Boine. In 1989 one of the original members died in a car accident and the band spread up.

Only the two Länsman-Sisters remained. For the very first time the band established the name "Angelin tytöt" or "Annel Nieiddat"("Girls of Angeli"). Three commercial releases by the Girls of Angeli followed: "Dolla" (Fire), "Giitu" (Thanks), and "Skeaikit" (Laughter). "Giitu" also introduced a new member, Alfred Häkkinen, playing guitar and drums.

In 1994 they performed together with Waltari on Waltari's song "So Fine" of the same called album. Various tours followed on which they performed further songs. The album was followed up by a tour on which they performed further songs together. On Waltari's 1995 album "Big Bang" was another song on which the two sisters performed: "Jänkhä." Various live shows in which they performed together followed. In 1997 a compilation containig songs from all three Angelin tytöt albums has been released.

In 1999 the albums themselves have been re-released. In the same year the band established a new, simplified name Angelit ("The Angelis") in 1997. In 1998 Angelit recorded for the first time a whole album with Waltari. In 1999 Angelit released their fourth album "Mannú" ("The Moon"). "Mannú" distinguishes from all former releases for on this album the traditional Sámi music is mixed up with modern dance beats. The band is also accompanied by three new members: Samuli Kosminen (percussion), Mamba Assefa (percussion) and Kimmo Kajasto (keyboards, programming, atmospherics). In 2000 "Channel Nordica" the two years earlier recorded album with Waltari is released.

The band title for this project is Waltari+Angelit. In 2003 Angelit released their album Reasons. Members Tuuni Länsman Ursula Länsman Alfred Häkkinen (guitar and drums) Samuli Kosminen (percussion) Mamba Assefa (percussion) Kimmo Kajasto (keyboards, programming, atmospherics) Albums With the name Angelin tytöt: Dolla (1992) Giitu (1993) Skeaikit (1995) With the name Angelit: Mannú (1999) Reasons (2003) Angelit have also recorded an album called Channel Nordica with Waltari. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..