Synnøve Brøndbo Plassen is a Norwegian folk musician, singer, educator and is currently taking a master's degree in music performance of folk music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She has mostly worked with traditional music from Folldal, Østerdalen and Trøndelag. Her repertoire ranges from children's songs and psalms to ballads and instrumental music performed vocally. In addition to receiving several other talent scholarships and awards, in 2019 she was chosen as the Hilmar talent, a national talent award for folk musicians and folk dancers. She has been described as one of the greatest young folk music talents and is a versatile folk singer through her dissemination of both traditional folk music, arranged folk music, and newly composed music. She has been touring with Bendik Smedåsgjelten Qvam on guitars and mandolin.
Hjemve
'Hjemve' is a Norwegian word for homesickness and is also the title of the Norwegian folk singer Synnøve Brøndbo Plassen's debut album. With this release, Synnøve wants to highlight the amazing traditions of vocal folk music from her home area Folldal (a small place in the region of Østerdalen in Norway). Through archive recordings, scores, and oral transmission, she has collected a bunch of tunes from this place, which has resulted in a beautiful debut album produced by the well-known and award-winning folk musician and composer Gjermund Larsen.
"In this project, I wanted to convey the fantastic vocal folk music in Folldal. I think this music is important in many ways, and I hope me and my voice have added something new to this music", says Plassen.
Growing up in Folldal, Synnøve has always been exposed to instrumental folk music. As a singer, she liked to imitate what the fiddlers were playing. Synnøve discovered the local tradition of dance music performed vocally as an adult and became taken by the tradition. After some research, several examples of instrumental folk tunes being performed vocally in the past emerged; it also turned out that many musicians had learned to play the fiddle by listening to singers. For example, her great-grandfather, Mikael Plassen (1902-1996), was a fiddler in Folldal who learned tunes after his mother's singing.
This album consists of music from Synnøve's childhood, after her great-grandfather, and music she has discovered recently, all of them tunes from Folldal.
"I have been working on this wonderful tradition for many years, and finally, I got to record it!" says Plassen.