Hania Rani Makes It Personal In Los Angeles

On December 9^th and 10^th, 2023, Hania Rani, the Polish pianist, composer, and performer, made her Los Angeles debut at the Teragram Ballroom, the last night of her short U.S. tour. The Saturday night show was sold out, and Sunday’s, which I attended, was added to accommodate the demand to see Rani perform live.

Until this point, I had flattered myself that I had discovered Rani during the pandemic, having been among the first to write about her in the U.S. In truth, it was not so much me, as it was YouTube’s algorithm which suggested Rani’s spellbinding performance Live from Studio S2.

As I watched her performance that first time, I was seized by a vision seeing her one day perform her original compositions built on the foundation of her classical training and which soar into the unexpected and extraordinary, on a large music festival stage such as Glastonbury to a crowd of 200,000. That hasn’t happened yet, but if you watch her wonderful performance at The Invalides in Paris for Cercle, you will see its possibility.

However, Sunday night in LA, it was my good fortune to be among 500 fans in a rock venue where the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder for her entire performance. As I polled members of the audience as to how they came to know of Rani, it became apparent that Rani was, for each, their own personal discovery. Whether through YouTube, Spotify, or other music recommendation algorithms, each claimed Rani as their own find.

One couple had driven from Phoenix to see Rani. Another young woman gave her reason for being there as, “I’m Polish.” She further explained that her friends back home in Poland had told her she had to go, and that seeing Hania Rani live would be “life-changing.” Another had discovered Hania Rani while watching a dance video of Nadia Szy dancing to “Dancing with Ghosts’ from Rani’s new album. Whatever the reason, each person felt, as I did, on team Rani.

At the Teragram, Rani’s set was organized in three sections: the first opened with the electronic sounds from her new album Ghosts. Rani performed the new songs in a slightly different order than on the album: Accompanied by Ziemowit Klimek on standup bass and a synth, Rani opened with Oltre Terra, followed by 24.03, Dancing with Ghosts. The Boat, Moans, Hello (which KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic DJ Novena Carmel selected as one of her favorite tracks of 2023) and Don’t Break My Heart.

In the second part of the performance, Rani performed several solo pieces including Pale Blue and its instrumental accompaniment; a lush version of Dreamy; and a captivating Piano improv, before returning to tracks from Ghosts such as Thin Line, Komeda, and Always in the Dark (which she performed at her Arte concert).

In performance Rani was as much rock star, dancing and bopping to her music as she was mad scientist, as she played and adjusted the controls and levers of her various electronic instruments.

My only critique of the performance is that the configuration of the keyboards on stage (a U-shape) was such that Rani performs a good deal of the performance with her back to the audience (And I wasn’t crazy about performers playing with their back to the audience even when Miles Davis did the same). Simply putting that one keyboard face to the audience would have made a big difference. Similarly, when Rani was playing the other two keyboards and was in in profile, her long hair hid her face (Yes – it’s come to that, I’ve become my parents saying “pull your hair off your face!”). But, as you can see from her YouTube performances, Rani’s face is expressive as she performs and it would be great to see that in her live performances.

On Ghosts Rani vocalizes more than ever, singing in English, at times using a vocoder for her voice, and looping it, pushing her sound out of the classical realm into electronica and pop. Rani’s voice in English is a high clear thread that she weaves into her compositions. As she builds vocal tracks that echo and amplify her voice, her music takes flight. Perhaps the reason so many find her music entrancing is that, as you get caught up in her world, each listener is taken on their own intimate journey by which the music becomes personal to them.

For her encore, Rani turned to two tracks from Live at Studio S2 (my personal favorite), Hawaii Oslo and Leaving.

I can’t say she played these just for me, but I will say it felt like she did. And that’s exactly how everyone else in the room felt listening to Hania Rani live.