HANIA RANI - Esja [reissue] (Gondwana Records)

HANIA RANI -  Esja [reissue] (Gondwana) "Esja" was released in April 2019 with Gondwana Records, who have released so many of my favourite artists in the past. The compositions were born out of a fascination with my principal instrument – the piano – which, on the album, takes form of an upright from my flat. In my own subjective way, I try to reinterpret the capabilities of its sound and harmonies, observing the way in which it resonates within a compact room space and translating, into the language of keys and hammers, the melodies I overheard on the road – most significantly, during my travels to Iceland and the Bieszczady Mountains in south-eastern Poland.

More about the record:

Esja is her debut solo album and for Rani it is her first, real, personal statement as an artist. “No hiding behind the ‘collaborations’ or ‘projects’ anymore. For the very first time, finally – just me, as I am”. The compositions on Esja were born out of a fascination with the piano as an instrument, and Rani’s desire to interpret its sound and harmonic possibilities in their entirety and in her own way. Recorded at Rani’s apartment in Warsaw (the piano room has a beautiful reverb and the space has become part art studio and part sound laboratory for Rani) and at her friend Bergur Þórisson’s studio in Reykjavik, Esja is a series of beautiful melodic vignettes, inspired by, Berlin, Iceland and the wild mountains in Bieszczady as well as a love of art and architecture. Sensual, sensitive, rhythmic, atmospheric, free but harmonious, beguiling, and hypnotic, collectively they project a sense of unlimited space and time.