Award-winning pianist, composer and singer Hania Rani isn’t scared of being scared. This month, she's running toward the fear at Melbourne Recital Centre.
The Polish-born, London-based performer will be bringing her transcendental modern soundscapes to the rippled plywood theatre of the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at Melbourne Recital Centre this February 20 and 21, with her visit to Australia marking one of the last stops of an 18-month tour. But while the tour may be coming to a close, Hania Rani isn’t slowing down.
Since its release in October 2023, Hania’s third studio album Ghosts has morphed into a living beast of its own. It has changed shape and sound, found texture and light, grown up and into the spaces it’s performed in.
Hania Rani
- Thursday, February 20 and Friday, February 21, from 7.30pm
- Melbourne Recital Centre
- Tickets here
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Just as the way that the music has been performed over the course of the tour has changed, so too has Hania. “The program and the setlist and songs that I started with in October 2023 are quite different to what I will perform in Australia,” she says. “Mostly because I’ve probably gained some confidence, [and] I want to excite myself.”
“At the moment we have actually quite a lot of new songs, or songs that I haven’t been performing, ever. I just thought, okay, that might be really beautiful, that might really work nicely for the show. But it’s a process. It’s mostly affected by the amount of time spent with this music and spent on stage.”
It’s not just the length of time that Hania has been on tour, either, that has shaped the setlist for the upcoming Melbourne Recital Centre shows. It’s also the specialness of being able to perform this otherworldly album live to audiences on the other side of the world.
“It is mind-blowing and really surprising,” Hania says about the deep appreciation Aussie audiences hold for her music. “There is so much love and such a beautiful welcome happening there. I cannot even conceive it; I cannot comprehend it,” she laughs.
“It’s the beautiful nature of music and arts. It is transcultural and it’s beyond destinations,” Hania says. Then, with a smile, she adds, “I need to say that it is very enjoyable because Australians are a little bit more spontaneous and excited than Europeans. So, it’s always a little bit nicer for a performer because you feel invigorated and energised again.”
Transforming MRC into a ghostly world
The audience won’t be the only element energising this multi-talented performer as she takes on the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall stage later this month. For someone who has played shows in an assortment of spaces straight out of postcards – from the snowy Swiss mountains to Les Invalides in Paris – the environment where Hania delivers her music is as much of a character in the performance’s story as anything else.
“The space is a crucial key element of music,” she says. “I think it really matters because sound and music always commune with the space. If there is some kind of atmosphere and if the sound can fly a little bit freely, you immediately enjoy it.”
Another way in which to transform the space into a world of her own making, Hania adds, is through stage aesthetics. “We are also bringing proper lights and visuals that have been a big part of this tour and of Ghosts,” she says. “I’m very happy that I can bring my whole team of wonderful creatives. I think the combination of the sonic realm and the visual realm will bring something special to Australia.”
“I’m always following a gut feeling”
Ghosts, in many ways, marks a new chapter in Hania’s story. The album has seen her experiment further with music, pushing past the limits of any one genre and exploring the no man’s land that lies beyond categorisable sounds.
Ghosts weaves threads of ambient, minimalist and house soundscapes throughout Hania’s signature ethereal sound. More so than her previous two albums, she plays around with synths and upbeat rhythms, as well as an instrument that she arguably knows just as well as she knows the piano. That is her own voice.
“I’m always following a gut feeling in terms of what feels good, what feels right,” Hania says. “It was really something very intuitive because obviously it’s part of my body, so I think you cannot be too reasonable or logical about it,” she tells me.
“I was composing this album mostly just on my own, sitting with a couple of keyboards and a couple of microphones,” Hania continues. “Voice was almost like a necessary choice because I didn’t have much help. I didn’t have other musicians to maybe inspire me [or] record some extra layers or something. Everything was very limited to myself. I was using everything that was possible.”
Running toward the fear
“That was one thing,” she says about using her voice as an instrument. “The second thing is I think because ghosts are full of stories. They touch on life and death, and ghosts as a phenomenon [are] someone who’s already experienced the whole, full life. It’s like a story itself.”
Although she’s a performer who displays so much confidence and self-assurance when trying new kinds of art, don’t be fooled into thinking that Hania Rani isn’t scared sometimes. This multi-disciplined musician merely embraces fear – the scariest parts of making art are the same parts that make her most excited about it.
“I just read recently something actually about courage and fear: they very often come together,” Hania says. “I think probably most of the courageous people that we know, they’re also really scared about things that they want to do.
“But I think this is how you are able to change,” she continues. “Because conceptually you probably want to reach some kind of wisdom and truth, some kind of wholesome approach to music and understanding, and probably it’ll never happen, but just this trajectory and the process of changing and also updating your own system, I think [that’s what it’s about].”
You can get tickets to see Hania Rani perform at Melbourne Recital Centre on February 20 and 21 here.
