The project, carried out in 2000, received DKK 500,000 in funding. Its primary goal was to create a larger domestic market for music in the NORA area — Norway (in the Sámi lands in particular), Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland — as well as better opportunities for marketing North Atlantic music in the rest of the world.Kristian Blak, head of Faroese record company Tutl, feels the project was a success. And even though it has come to an end, he reckons it could be revived in a new format.“We made a lot of contacts and did a lot of networking at the time, and we attended a music expo in France. We had a lot in common with ULO, a Greenlandic firm that no longer exists, unfortunately. We both marketed music releases, so we were able help each other by marketing the other’s releases. Iceland is bigger than we are, and the music industry there has good and strong international contacts, so that was something we took advantage of, of course.
Unfortunately, the Sámi had very little influence when it came to distribution in their home market, and that held them back,” Blak says.
A successful part of the partnership was the release of two CD compilations — Rock from the Cold Seas and World Music from the Cold Seas — that featured music from all of the participating record companies.All four record companies went into the project convinced that a partnership was possible. Blak still believes it could have been, had it not been for the significant differences that existed at the time amongst the four countries and the individual record companies.“That made it difficult to keep any continuity in the partnership after the project period. But I believe that a partnership of this sort is still valuable given the recognisability of the North Atlantic’s image. A lot has happened in the 20 years that have passed. Back then, it was all about marketing CDs. We don’t distribute many CDs today. Going forward, I think it would be a good idea to partner more closely on live music instead,” Blak says.
