Ghosts Hania Rani

• 1Oltre Terra02:39
• 2Hello05:08
• 3Don't Break My Heart05:22
• 424.0304:13
• 5Dancing with Ghosts04:59
• 6A Day in Never04:25
• 7Whispering House04:52
• 8The Boat07:05
• 9Moans04:33
• 10Thin Line04:18
• 11Komeda11:03
• 12Utrata04:11
• 13Nostalgia03:26
• Total Runtime01:06:14

Info for Ghosts

Hania Rani announces her new album, Ghosts, bringing her songwriting and beautiful vocals to the fore and featuring special guests Patrick Watson, Ólafur Arnalds and Duncan Bellamy (Portico Quartet).

Ghosts is the sound of an ever-evolving artist and, just as the album’s title suggests she passes repeatedly and gracefully between musical worlds: as composer, singer, songwriter, and producer. This album builds on Rani’s earlier successes Esja and Home with an expanded yet still minimal setup of piano, keyboards, synths (most importantly her Prophet) and features more of her mysterious, bewitching voice. Its spirit is warm, beckoning one into an ambitious double album that unfolds at an exquisite pace, informed by her revelatory, exploratory live performances.

Ghosts is also an album of collaborations as Rani is joined by Patrick Watson, who breathes unearthly life into the ethereal ‘Dancing with Ghosts’. ‘Whispering House’is written and recorded with her friend, Ólafur Arnalds and casts a peaceful, ineluctable spell; and Portico Quartet’s Duncan Bellamy contributes vital loops to ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ and ‘Thin Line’.

Rani’s lyrics are partially inspired by a two-month residency in a small studio in Switzerland’s mountains, where Rani was working on the soundtrack On Giacometti for a documentary about the renowned Swiss artist. “Where I stayed was once an old sanatorium in an area which used to be very popular, but now there are huge abandoned hotels where the locals say ghosts live. I mean, it's kind of a local belief system – these ghosts even have names! – but once you're deep into nature or some abandoned place, your imagination starts working on a different level.”

“The edge of life and death,” Rani summarises, “and what actually happens in between: this was what really interested me. Even singing the word ‘death’ was quite a shock. It’s such a weird word to say out loud, and people are afraid of it, which I found extremely interesting. Most of the songs probably still talk about love and things like that, but Ghosts is more me thinking about having to face some kind of end.”

Hania Rani

Hania Rani
is an award-winning pianist, composer and singer. Her debut album ‘Esja’, a beguiling collection of solo piano pieces on Gondwana Records was released to international acclaim in 2019, earning Rani four prestigious Fryderyk Awards including “Best Debut Album”, “Best Alternative Album” and “Best New Arrangement”, in recognition from the Polish music industry’s very own Grammys.

Her follow-up sophomore album, the expansive, cinematic, ‘Home’, was released in 2020 on Gondwana Records and finds Rani expanding her palate: adding vocals and subtle electronics to her music as well as being accompanied by bassist Ziemowit Klimek and drummer Wojtek Warmijak. The album earned Rani another notable accolade of “Best Composer”, a further acknowledgement from Fryderyk and with Rough Trade including it in their essential “Albums of the Year”.

Hania’s third solo album ‘Ghosts‘ was released on October 6th 2023, and features Patrick Watson, Ólafur Arnalds and Duncan Bellamy (from Portico Quartet) and was made with the help of Viktor Orri Árnason (string arrangements) and Greg Freeman (mixing). ‘Ghosts’ was mastered by John Davis at Metropolis Studios.

“With ‘Ghosts’ I wanted to start something from scratch, picking tools and stories I was not familiar with, but which felt dear to me. ‘Ghosts’ is a story about life and death, light and darkness, real and unreal. It’s an attempt to touch ultimate qualities and craft my own mythologies; to face fears, take a deep dive into things that scare me but also seduce me subconsciously. ‘Ghosts’ collects all of these things together, mixing the past, present and the future into a new sound of mine.”

Newly announced ‘Nostalgia‘ is Rani’s first ‘real’ live album, recorded in a place of deep personal and artistic significance: the Polish Radio studios in Warsaw. Through Nostalgia, Hania presents the studios in her own perspective,as somewhere unique and unknown. A place of work, but something more. A place of ghosts and hidden meanings, of inspiration and mystery. By juxtaposing her music with evocative analogue photographs of the studios, Rani provides a closer look at her artistic journey – from composing to performance and recording – all seen through her own eyes. For Rani, it is an experimental step – the first time she brings her sonic and visual worlds together in a combined presentation.

Booklet for Ghosts