Grammy Nominated Harpreet Bansal Brings The Raga 2.0 With New Album Parvat
Ragas, with a jazz twist… The Norwegian Grammy-nominated Harpreet Bansal blurs the lines between the North Indian tradition and erratic, playful jazz in Parvat – the wildly free and musically outstanding three-piece movement.
The piece, which lasts 37 minutes, is a showcase of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra’s and Oslo Philharmonic soloists’ abilities. The music is boosted by Harpreet’s inspirations, which have a solid and deep-rooted base in Indian classical music. Parvat is an epic and dramatic collection of movements inspired by everyone from Konnakol, her contemporaries, the best gurus across Europe, India, and Asia, and even classic rock. The album’s constant is a feeling of the unusual, whether it’s a billowing air of mystery with deep double bass and an engulfing atmosphere, or intensely dynamic with pounding tabla and string strikes.
The critically regarded artist is no stranger to the exceptional. Harpreet’s first guru was her father, who relocated to Oslo in the 1970s when she was just two years old. Since then, Harpreet has toured extensively throughout Europe, India, and Asia, studying under legendary Indian musicians such as Dr L. Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthi, breaking ground as the first to study North Indian classical music at the Norwegian Academy of Music, receiving a Norwegian Grammy nomination for her second album, and performing 700 concerts for schoolchildren, whom she describes as “the toughest and best audience in the world.”
Harpreet is most known for her work with BBC World Music artist Solo Cissoko in the band Combinations, as well as performances with Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Petter, Svante Henryson, and Vahid Taj Ao.
Harpreet Bansal is one of North Indian traditional music’s most fascinating characters, having worked as a composer, orchestra soloist, mother, and even a Tae Kwon Do black belt. The musician carries the torch from the greats before her as she pushes the music into new and intriguing territory altogether, with a generally applauded unconventional approach to the genre. Audiences may expect to hear Parvat on February 11th, 2022.
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Words By: Aaran F
