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Esja

by Hania Rani

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7.99 GBP  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Esja via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day
    Purchasable with gift card

      £11.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Heavy weight reverse board sleeve including a double sided printed insert plus digital download code.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Esja via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £22.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Sheet Music

    'Esja' is the second book (following The White Flag) featuring printed sheet music collection of piano pieces composed and released by Hania Rani. Please see t&c below.

    The book contains specially selected compositions, art photography, as well as a digital pass to download audio copies of the titles coming from her debut album "Esja". It has been manufactured out of high-quality paper and cardboard, sewn together in a way that ensures its stable placement on a piano sheet music stand of any music lover that chooses to read it. The scores include the 10 tracks from the album, as well as 5 other, yet unpublished, compositions.

    This time, Hania envisioned the book as more than a mere set of sheets: she wanted it to be an album that tells a wider story of places, events and emotions that have accompanied her creative process. Interspersed among the scores are photographs by Marcin Leszczyński, a friend of the artist who joined her two years ago on a journey to rediscover the charms of her beloved Bieszczady Mountains (Biesy) and the inconspicuous beauty of Warsaw (Warszawa), where she studied and currently lives.

    Another contribution to the visual side of this album comes from Anthony Zinonos, a U.S. collage artist who dedicated a number of his works to Esja in particular. The all-round graphic form of the publication was designed by Nicola Cholewa and the accompanying texts were translated from Polish by Piotr Wieczorek.

    "I dearly hope that this book brings you joy, along some inspiration and motivation to pursue your own creative ventures, or to make music together with others. On purpose, I have not included many dynamic and articulation marks, as I wanted to leave you more freedom to shape your own, personal interpretations of these pieces. I know that I am leaving my music in good hands."

    Hania Rani

    TRANSCRIBED SONGS

    EDEN
    SUN
    HAWAII OSLO
    POUR TROIS
    BIESY
    LUKA
    TODAY IT CAME
    GLASS
    ESJA
    NOW, RUN
    RURKA Z KREMEM
    TODAY
    TOMORROW
    WARSZAWA
    VARSJA (GOOD NIGHT, K.)


    Music: Hania Rani
    Graphic design: Nicola Cholewa
    Score edit: Aleksandra Chmielewska
    Photographs: Marcin Leszczynski
    Collages: Anthony Zinonos
    Translation: Piotr Wieczorek

    Set in: Spezia
    Printed on: Munken Lynx
    Printed by: Drukarnia Klimiuk, Warsaw
    Copyright: Hania Rani
    Second Edition
    Print run: 200

    Size: 23,5 x 308 mm x 14 mm
    Pages: 134
    Weight: 0,73
    Soft binding

    ** TERMS AND CONDITIONS **

    Please note before purchasing that this book has been designed and hand-crafted with the intention of using natural materials which can scratch or scuff. It has a loose sewn binding in favour of using glued mass-produced techniques. Each book is uniquely different as the artist intended, therefore it is a delicate collectable item rather than a traditional sheet music book.

    Between the book and the shrinkwrap you can find the download code to download the album. Simply go to gondwanarecords.bandcamp.com/yum and redeem the 8 digit code.
    ... more
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €40 EUR or more 

     

  • **Limited Edition Clear Vinyl**
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Strictly limited Clear Vinyl Edition featuring printed insert and download code. Limited to 500 copies worldwide.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Esja via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Eden 04:55
2.
Sun 05:22
3.
Hawaii Oslo 04:15
4.
Pour Trois 03:14
5.
Biesy 04:15
6.
Luka 05:06
7.
Glass 04:30
8.
9.
Esja 04:21
10.
Now, Run 06:31

about

“I think I am the same as an artist and as a person. Music is my way of communication and I see the art, the music as a whole thing, with no borders, divisions, or even genres.”

Hania Raniis a pianist, composer and musician who splits her life between Warsaw, where she makes her home, and Berlin where she studied and often works. She has written for strings, piano, voice and electronics and has collaborated with the likes of Christian Löffler, Dobrawa Czocher and Hior Chronik, and released an album with her Polish group tęskno last year. She has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in Europe - from the National Philharmony in Warsaw, to Funkhaus in Berlin, to The Roundhouse in London (where she made her debut at the Gondwana 10thanniversary festival last October) and at festivals such as Open’er, Scope Festival and Eurosonic. Her compositions for solo piano were born out of a fascination with the piano as an instrument, and her desire to interpret its sound and harmonic possibilities in their entirety and in her own way.

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”.

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’sstudio in Reykjavik, Esja is a series of beautiful melodic vignettes. Sensual, sensitive, rhythmic, atmospheric, free but harmonious, beguiling and hypnotic, collectively they project a sense of unlimited space and time.

Originally, Rani hadn’t planned to release a solo piano album at all. “I would like to be considered first of all as a composer of music - so not being limited to any instrument or voice or whatever. The solo album came when I went to Reykjavik, where I wrote some new songs instantly while in the studio, so they were almost improvised compositions. It was then that I decided to release an unadorned solo piano album - telling a lot about my musical roots, which are definitely in this instrument. But it’s also just a small prelude of all the music that I want to share in the future”.

Rani grew up in Gdansk with her parents (a doctor and architect) and surrounded by music and films. Initially inspired to study classical music, she was introduced to jazz and electronics at music school, widening her interests and as she puts it, “mixing Chopin & Schostakovitch with Dave Brubeck and Moderat”.Other inspirations include composers such as Max Richter, Esbjorn Svensson, Miles Davis, Nils Frahm, Murcof, Portico Quartet, Radiohead and even The Beatles.“It’s what connects all these artists that inspires me, their special approach to music and sound. For me they have big hearts and huge minds.”

But Rani’s inspirations aren’t just musical, she has drawn inspiration from places she has lived and visited. “It’s about the feeling, the general atmosphere, sometimes about memories. Moving to Berlin (where you have the freedom to be yourself), exploring Iceland and the wild mountains in Bieszczady, South-East Poland, all changed me as a person, so I guess, also affected me as an artist.” And inspiration comes too from visual arts. Her father was an architect and the arts remain hugely important to Rani. “Ifind that what really inspires my music is not the music, but all the other things. I take inspiration for the form of my own pieces from architecture and design. Then I translate this "foreign" language, to my own music and the outcome is way more interesting for me than just getting it from the music.

Indeed, for Rani it is often an image or a colour that comes first, what she calls a sound image. “I can really feel the colours, the mood - just like with photography. If the image is strong enough, sounds come along very quickly, trying to build the right image stuck in my head. The music fills the space, the music brings the new worlds, new spaces. One such inspiration was the collage artist Anthony Zinonos whose artwork adorns the cover of Esja and whose work Hania first found when she was working on the music that would become this album.“I really like the mix of colours and minimalistic style which perfectly describe me as a person and as an artist. I am really in love with his sense of humour and rare ability to match pure shapes with energetic colours and mood”

Beautifully sculpted, Esja opens with the gorgeous Eden,which features a chorus full of warmth and grace. Sun is inspired by the sensation of the warmth of the sun, but also by the feeling of being small in the face of the universe. Hawaii Oslotakes its name from the film of the same name, but is inspired by the contrast of mood and location, always changing as you listen. Biesyis named for the Bieszczady Mountains and a memory of driving in Bieszczady'sforests and twisted roads with friends. The wistful, charming, Luka, is a love song written for someone who affected Rani’s music profoundly. The shimmering Glassis named for its fragility, but also for its many colours, like glass caught in the light. Today it Cameis the only song from the album recorded on a grand piano (belonging to Olafur Arnalds in his studio in Reykjavik). Inspired by the piano, Rani wrote a simple, beautiful tune, and when asked what the song was, she replied “it came today" and that became the title of a memorable piece. Finally, Esjais the named by the mountain in south-west Iceland (which can be seen from almost everywhere in Reykjavik) and because of constant changes to the weather there, it always looks different. It therefore became the perfect title for one of her favourite pieces, one that sounds different every time she performs it. And in turn it became the perfect title for her debut album. A powerful, entrancing statement that offers new delights and new insights on every listen and announces Hani Rani as a major new artist.

This release was uploaded at 24 bit / 44.1 kHz and available in FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3 and available in FLAC, WAV, AIFF or MP3.

credits

released April 5, 2019

2018, Gondwana Records

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Hania Rani Warsaw, Poland

Hania Rani is an award-winning pianist, composer and singer.

“I think I am the same as an artist and as a person. Music is my way of communication and I see the art, the music as a whole thing, with no borders, divisions, or even genres.” ... more

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