Oslo Sagene Kirke

Photo from recording session in Oslo

Ragnhild Hemsing: hardange fiddle

Mathias Eick: trumpet

Ole Aastad Bråten :langeleik

Knut Aastad Bråten :langeleik

Marthe Husum : viola

Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen : chello

Steinar Raknes: bass

Album to be released on Berliner Classics.

An old fiddle maker from Hardanger in Norway once said about the really old Hardanger fiddles: "They are not good because they are old; they are old because they are good." The same goes for playing slåtter (a general term for Norwegian folk melodies, songs and dances) and folk music in general. This music has been refined over time, and the best has survived where there was a living folk music tradition - mostly where traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next, as is still the case in many places today.
The album "Vetra" features folk music that Ludvig Mathias Lindeman collected and wrote down in Valdres.

Release date: November 3rd, 2023

An old fiddle maker from Hardanger in Norway once said about the really old Hardanger fiddles: "They are not good because they are old; they are old because they are good." The same goes for playing slåtter (a general term for Norwegian folk melodies, songs and dances) and folk music in general. This music has been refined over time, and the best has survived where there was a living folk music tradition - mostly where traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next, as is still the case in many places today.
The album "Vetra" features folk music that Ludvig Mathias Lindeman collected and wrote down in Valdres. Lindeman found his "raw material" in the songs and folk melodies that were played and sung in villages and small communities off the beaten track in different parts of Norway, and which were passed on directly from person to person. In the process, they were formed into a style that we can call traditional music - in our case, the traditional music of Valdres. Five of these slåtter can be heard on this album, and they are described below. However, not all folk melodies originated where Lindeman found them, nor did they always develop in the way described. Some originated elsewhere and entered into local use, only becoming traditional folk music over time. On this album, there are seven religious folk melodies, hymns and church songs, all of which came to these communities from outside very early on. In fact, this is the richest sub-genre of Norwegian vocal folk music in purely quantitative terms. Ragnhild Hemsing