About handline fishing, Faroese fishers, Greenland and new single!
We have a new single out! It’s called “eitt minni” (a memory) and is the second single from our upcoming album. Here’s a little background:
Among the oldest forms of fishing is handline fishing, which is a technique where a fishing line is held in the hands (without a fishing rod) and the baited hooks are attached to the lines. This way of fishing has probably been practised on the Faroe Islands since the first people settled there hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Fishing very much hands on from small boats, locally around the many islands in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
A hundred years ago, in the beginning of 1920’s, English and German boats started to show up in these waters. They came with much bigger boats and were trawling, which totally outplayed the local Faroese fishermen, who didn’t have the capital available to reorganise their traditional way of fishing and were unable to compete with these much bigger ships and industrial scaled fishing. Against their will, they had to move north. Towards Iceland and Greenland, where the was less competition. This meant that they were in a big need for stations where the fish could be landed.
In 1927 Færingehaven (the Faroese Harbour) was established outside the west coast of Greenland - to big protests and push backs from the indigenous and local population. But was nevertheless approved by the Danish government. In the coming years this harbour quickly developed into an international fishing harbour with freezing facilities, salt silo and a whole little community.
In 1925, Dánjal’s grandfather - Napoleon á Neystabø - was born. He grew up in a small village on the Faroe Islands and took to sea in a rather young age. For a big part of his life he was working at the Færingehavnen in Greenland. Shortly before his passing a few years ago, 94 years old, Dánjal was recording a conversation with him, where he talks about his time and experiences in Færingehavnen. Among many of stories and memories, he talked about a tragic accident that happened while he was there. A fishing boat sank and 14 men died, from drowning or freezing to death in the life boats.
On our album we wanted to explore, honour and dedicate our creative output to this time and place in history and have created music and lyrics, which takes us back to a bygone age in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
The track “eitt minni” (a memory), features a bit from Dánjal’s conversation with his grandfather Napoleon, where he talks about the above mentioned shipwreck.
Music, lyrics and translations available here on: https://www.klingra.net/music as well as on all streaming platforms.