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Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (born 1971 in Oppdal, Norway) is one of the most important figures in creative music in Norway – and elsewhere – today.

Coming from a musical family of six sisters and brothers, and a father who played the organ, he started to play piano and guitar at an early age. He switched over to the bass guitar, playing in a gospel choir in his hometown when he was 12. At 18 he moved to norwegian city Trondheim, where he picked up the acoustic bass, and decided he wanted to study at the music academy there, a school that has shaped many of the influental figureheads of the norwegian contemporary scene today. In 1992 he got into the school, and studied there for three years with bassplayer Odd Magne Gridseth, saxophonist Jon-Paal Inderberg and pianist Erling Aksdal.

Since 1995 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten have been a professional musician based in Oslo, and have been an important musician in leading scandinavian bands such as The Source, Element, Maria Kannegård Trio, Petter Wettre Trio, and between 1997-04 toured the world with the famed norwegian keyboard/piano player Bugge Wesseltoft and his New Conceptions of Jazz. Together with Bugge he performed with internationally established artists such as John Scofield (US), Joshua Redman (US) and Eric Trufaz (FRA).

Today Ingebrigt Håker Flaten have released more than 40 recordings and is focusing his work in Atomic, The Thing with Mats Gustafson, Atomic/School Days, Scorch Trio with Raoul Björkenheim, The Electrics with Axel Dörner, Free Fall with Ken Vandermark, Close Erase with Christian Wallumrød, Tore Brunborg Kvartett and is regulary doing solo performances.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten´s creative and highly original bass playing has been highly regarded all over the world and he have done several performances with major international artists such as Evan Parker (UK), Paul Lytton (UK), Joe McPhee (US), Joe Lovano (US), Yusef Lateef (US), Tony Oxley (UK), Iain Ballamy (UK), Dave Liebman (US), Chris Potter (US), Zim Ngqvana (SA), Benoit Delbeq (FRA), Dr.L.Subramaniam (IND), Billy Cobham (US), Jean Luc Pounty (FRA). He has frequently appeared at important international jazz festivals in Den Haag, Liége, Montraux, Athens/Georgia, Cape Town, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Istanbul, Saalfelden, Nice, Groningen, San Francisco, San Sebastian, Lüc, Nancy, London, Perpignan, Molde, Perth, Kongsberg, Berlin, Houston and legendary clubs such as New Morning in Paris, Quasimodo in Berlin, Ronny Scotts and Pizza Express in London, Knitting Factory and Tonic in New York, Empty Bottle in Chicago, Blue Note in Yokohama and Hemlock Tawern in San Francisco.
His musical expression is based on the language of jazz and improvised music, acoustic and electronic, but his interest in rock and ethnic music also shows through his collaborations with the norwegian rock bands Motorpsycho and Cato Salsa Experience as well as his work through Rikskonsertene with musicians from Palestine and India.
In July 2003, as the first bass-player in Norway, he released his solo-CD “Double bass” on the norwegian label SOFA.

He has at the tender age of 33 already managed to establish himself as one of the most important exponents of the younger generation of musicians on the european scene today. In July 2004 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten was awarded Kongsberg Jazzfestival official “Vitalprisen” – the highest award for jazz musicians in Norway.