Sondre Bratland

Sondre Bratland (born 11 September 1938) is a Norwegian folk singer, song teacher and Government scholar. He has performed traditional songs from Setesdal and Telemark, collected religious folk tunes and composed music to songs by poets as Olav H. Hauge and Tarjei Vesaas. His album Pilegrimens Sangbog from 1982 earned him Spellemannprisen.

Born in Vinje where his parents were his father was a shopkeeper and his mother ran a hostel, Sondre Bratland grew up in an area and in a family with strong folk song traditions, especially among women. The song style is referred to as kveding. His mother sang at home and his aunt Brita Bratland was a folk singer who recorded songs for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. While influenced by the local song traditions, Bratland never studied it in his youth. He became a teacher.

His interest in folk singing was revoked through listening to the NRK radio program Folkemusikkhalvtimen (English: Folk music half-hour), where he became particularly fascinated by the folk singer Ragnar Vigdal. He then started studying and collecting folk tunes; among those he worked with were Brita Bratland, Ragnar Vigdal from Luster and Tallak Haslemo from Bykle.

He taught Arve Moen Bergset folk music singing for eight years.

In 1997, he was appointed Government scholar by the Parliament of Norway; allowing him to focusing full-time on music. He also headed the folk culture study department at the Telemark University College for five years.

Bratland has held concerts in more than 600 churches in Norway, but also performs in other venues and abroad.

The folk singer Ingebjørg Harman Bratland is daughter of a cousin of his.

Sondre Bratland released his first album Pilegrimenens Sangbog (The Pilgrims' songbook) in 1982. It was recorded in Gjerpen church, Skien, where several of his later albums also are recorded. Iver Kleive played the organ The recording was characterised by improvisations and the album has been praised for introducing a new way to perform hymns. Bratland was awarded the Spellemanns Award for the album.

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