Sondre Bratland

[1] Born in Vinje, where 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.

His mother sang at home and his aunt Brita Bratland was a folk singer who recorded songs for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

[4] 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.

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.

[11] Musicians Iver Kleive, Knut Reiersrud, Paolo Vinaccia and Suheil Khoury participated in the recording along with a Palestinian choir.

It includes song by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams translated by Bratland into Norwegian, as well as Irish and Scottish folk tunes.

[3] On the 2008 album Det Er Den Draumen (English: It´s That Dream), Bratland has set melodies to poems by Olav H. Hauge.