Hania Rani / On Giacometti
GONDLP059
Released 17/02/2023 – Limited edition LP & DL
Hania Rani announces "On Giacometti" a tender meditation on the life and art of Alberto
Giacometti and family.
"On Giacometti" is a collection of beautiful recordings inspired by the renowned artist and family and
features some of Rani’s most profoundly delicate compositions to date. Invited by film director Susanna
Fanzun, to score her forthcoming documentary on the legendary artist Alberto Giacometti, Hania Rani
took herself to the Swiss mountains to compose in blissful isolation. As Rani explains eloquently below the
compositions are based on improvised melodies, simple harmonies and structures and inspired by the
silence of the mountains as Rani returns to her main instrument, the piano. The results are beguilingly
reminiscent of her beloved debut album Esja, but with subtle extra layers of synthesiser, and on two
tracks cello from friend and long-running collaborator Dobrawa Czocher.
'On Giacometti' is presented as a limited edition LP with bespoke packaging featuring Les Naturals –
Chocolat (Gmund) sustainable recycled paperboard made from 100 % recovered paper with Foil Artwork
by Łukasz Pałczyński. Plus Double sided printed insert and download code inside.
Hania Rani "On Giacometti"
When I was asked to compose a soundtrack for a movie about the family of Giacometti I didn't think twice.
Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss artist, who worked mainly as painter and sculptor has been one of my
favourite artists for a long time. His individual style, aesthetics and the character of his creative process is
still fascinating to me on many levels, so being able to dive even deeper into his universe, getting to know
not only him but also his family was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss.
Little did I know how far this "yes" will take me – not only mentally and on a creative level but also
physically. Thanks to the director of the documentary – Susanna Fanzun and by a stroke of luck and a
couple of extra questions I decided to move for a couple of months to the Swiss mountains, not far away
from the place where Giacometti was born and where the place he called home was, although he didn’t
live there. Susanna showed me a place close to her hometown where I could rent a studio and work on
the soundtrack but also for my other projects. It was the middle of a winter, the area was full of ice and
snow, just like only it can happen still in the mountains. The residency house was located in a valley
surrounded by high mountains and the sun in the winter season was not coming up for too long during the
day. I remember she told me about it and added "that not everyone is feeling well there, but I hope you
will". I did.
Being almost separated from reality, the city and its entertainments, people rushing and everything that
usually takes my attention I could fully concentrate on the music and soundtrack, spending most of the
day with my own thoughts and having enough space to experiment and be free in a creative process. This
soundtrack would probably be a very different thing if composed in a place that I am usually living in. I took
this a chance to explore something new about myself as a composer and human being, taking the
opposite direction that I would usually choose for myself.
The album "On Giacometti" includes the excerpts from the soundtrack, the most representative tracks and
those which became a strong voice itself. Based a lot on improvised melodies, simple harmonies,
structures and silence it reminds me of my debut album "Esja" which was partly composed and recorded
in another chilly place – Iceland. All these components, both mental and physical, guided me back to my
main instrument – piano, which I tried to redefine again with a language of the space that I was working in.
The space is usually the key element that gives me the answer about the arrangement or character of the
project. Space seems to be the first to appear and music is the invisible power which is changing its
angels.
Living surrounded by mountains makes you change the perspective and understanding of scale as Alberto
Giacometti once famously wrote in a letter.
It gives an impression that things that are actually far away, like mountains, are close and the other
ones that are not so far away, like people, seem small, watched from a distance.
You feel like touching the mountain top with your finger could be as easy as touching the tip of your nose.
The snow additionally protects the whole area from the noise, each sound lands softly on the ground
accompanied by echoes of immeasurable space. Each scratch or whisper is becoming an autonomic
entity, opening the gate to the world of ghosts and lost spirits. It's easy to think that time stands still there,
while nothing is moving and changing at the first sight.
But the ubiquitous ice and snow reveal the passage of time, transforming frozen paysage into the wild
stream of water – each day, hour and second. Melting and vanishing, clearing the space from white
powder and noise consuming surface. Invisible process for a one night traveller, becomes painfully real for
longer time settlers.
Time flows with each new wave of sound coming through the river, reminding us that we are part of the
cycle, which endlessly repeats itself.
I left the valley with the first breath of the spring.
