“Binding everything together is Bansa’s shimmering, yearning fiddle… Samaya is a classy piece of collective musicianship and well worth repeated listening.” – Tim Woodall, Songlines Magazine
Harpreet Bansal, Norwegian Grammy nominated musician presents a collection of instrumentalism that combines North Indian traditional sounds with ragas jazz in Parvat, a three-piece album.
This 37-minute body of work shines light on the talent of Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic soloist’s, rich with Harpreet’s electric influences of Konnakol, her contemporaries, the drama of classic rock and the teachings of gurus across Europe, India and Asia. Laced with grounding double bass, multisided instrumentation and a mixing pot of tempo experimentation, Bansal showcases diverse sounds of the thundering tabla and striking rhythmic patterning.
Bansal is no stranger to creating spellbinding pieces. Dedicating her time to music from just two years old, Harpreet’s first idol was her guru father who moved to Oslo in the 70’s. Since then, Harpreet has travelled across Europe, India and Asia, whilst studying under distinguished Indian musicians such as Dr L Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthi, becoming the first to study North Indian classical music at the Norwegian Academy of Music, to then be nominated for a Norwegian Grammy for her second album and performing in over 700 concerts for school children, Harpreet describing them as “the toughest and best audience in the world”.
Harpreet has featured in the band Combonations with BBC World Music alongside the late Solo Cissoko, as well as her performances with Bugge wesseltoft, Nils Petter, Svante Henryson and Vahid Taj Ao.
A multi-faceted talent, including working as a composer, orchestra soloist, mother and a Tae Kwon Do black belt, Harpreet Bansal is becoming someone to watch in North Indian traditional music. For fans of Anoushka Shankar, fans can look forward to hearing Parvat on February 11th.
You can find Harpreet Bansal via the links below:
Words by Olivia Barnes