AWARD WINNING COMPOSER HANIA RANI SHARES “SONORE – ANIMATO – MENO MOSSO” THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF HER NEW ALBUM NON FICTION – PIANO CONCERTO IN FOUR MOVEMENTS SET FOR NOVEMBER 14 RELEASE – Press Releases

AWARD WINNING COMPOSER HANIA RANI SHARES “SONORE – ANIMATO – MENO MOSSO” THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF HER NEW ALBUM NON FICTION – PIANO CONCERTO IN FOUR MOVEMENTS SET FOR NOVEMBER 14 RELEASE

RECORDED WITH MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE AND HUGH BRUNT (CONDUCTOR)

AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIO 2 WITH GUEST PERFORMANCES FROM JACK WYLLIE (SAXOPHONE) AND VALENTINA MAGALETTI (DRUMS AND PERCUSSION)

LISTEN TO “SONORE - ANIMATO - MENO MOSSO” HERE

World Premiere Performance Of Non Fiction

Slated For November At The Barbican Centre, London

26 SEPTEMBER 2025 (TORONTO, ON) — Today multi-award-winning composer, producer, pianist and vocalist, Hania Rani, releases the first movement, “Sonore - Animato - Meno Mosso,” from her upcoming album Non Fiction - Piano Concerto in Four Movements (Decca Records US), set for release on November 14. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, with a 45-piece orchestra, Non Fiction marks a new chapter in Rani’s career as she segues from the electronic tones and songs of her acclaimed album Ghosts into the symphonic realm, forging a bridge between her elegant experimentalism and classical training. In fact after the otherworldly tones of Ghosts, Rani arrives firmly down to earth with her new piece, the acute, reportage-like nature of which suggests a more “non fictional” approach reflected in the album title. The piano concerto strives to create a soundscape of aural juxtaposition, to examine how we respond to the atrocities of war and human suffering, looking through the lens of modern horrors in both Ukraine and Palestine, and how we 'observe' and 'hear' them through our use of digital technology. Showcasing Hania’s fearless and highly idiosyncratic approach to a new direction for instrumental music, the score is powerful, singular, and profound. You can listen to the first movement, “Sonore - Animato - Meno Mosso,” here. The world premiere performance will take place at the Barbican Centre in London, November 25-26 and the North American premiere will be as part of the prestigious Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN in March 2026.

The first movement introduces the central theme of juxtaposition - whispers of fragile sounds alongside rumbling sonic outbursts. These motifs recur across the composition, serenity dissolving into chaos, dissonance into harmony, this interplay of balance and friction becomes the essence of the piece from the first note to the last. Not locked to an emotional narrative, the work invites listeners to reflect and bring their own perspectives and feelings to the experience, to give shape to the music of a landscape where silence and sound exist as counterparts.

Rani collaborated with leading figures across genres from today’s contemporary music world, each of whom played key roles in helping to deliver Rani’s ambitious vision for Non Fiction. Manchester Collective, who are known for their genre-crossing collaborations and imaginative presentation of classical and contemporary music, perform the orchestral score. Conductor Hugh Brunt is co-Artistic Director of the London Contemporary Orchestra, who has conducted projects with Jonny Greenwood, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Thom Yorke. Violinist Rakhi Singh, who has performed with Philip Glass, Abel Selaocoe, and Hiromi, and is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Manchester Collective, leads the 45-piece orchestra for the recording and together with Brunt, who she introduced to Rani, played a vital role in helping deliver Rani’s ambitious vision for the piece.

Finally, the remarkable individual voices of saxophonist Jack Wyllie, a founding member of Mercury Prize nominated Portico Quartet, and Valentina Magaletti, the prolific drummer-composer who is one half of the critically acclaimed electronic duo, Tomaga and an erstwhile member of psychedelic pop band Vanishing Twin, expanded the piece’s vernacular with the tone of improvised and experimental music. Together they helped shape a sound that feels timeless yet of the moment.

Following her acclaimed solo albums, worldwide Ghosts tour and multiple live recordings, including performances at Tiny Desk and most recently as her synth-based, alter-ego Chilling Bambino, with each project Rani brings her audience new sonic experiences. Now, brought into being by an extraordinary merging of a 45-piece orchestra and experimental instrumentalists, Non Fiction actively engages the audience in a musical conversation across four contrasting movements. Non Fiction reflects on the human cost of war, drawing inspiration from both the rediscovery of compositions by Josima Feldschuh, a young prodigy who wrote music during World War II in the Ghetto in Warsaw and the present horrors of war in Ukraine and Palestine. Confronting how violence is depicted from afar through modern media, Non Fiction unfolds as a study in contrasts and Rani translates this into a musical language.

“When approaching the project both sonically and philosophically, what intrigued me was not just the historical aspect of the story, but how acutely pertinent it felt - somehow impossible to understand without considering the context of the present moment,” says Hania. “If you were to juxtapose the images of the demolished city of Warsaw during World War II with the devastated Gaza Strip today, the images are so strikingly similar that it can be difficult to recognize either location or time in history. This is why I felt compelled to approach Josima's story through the lens of my generation and the questions we are grappling with today. The aim was not only to avoid reducing something so profoundly human to a museum object, but also to use it as a means of understanding the complex fabric of the present - marked by unimaginable violence - and, through the lens of 'now,' to reconsider what dwells in the past.’

Non Fiction will be available globally on November 14 across all digital platforms and on LP and CD. You can pre-order here.

Non Fiction – Piano Concerto In Four Movements
I. Sonore - Animato - Meno Mosso
II. Tenebroso - Presto - Cantabile
III. Misterioso
IV. Semplice

Hania Rani is a multi-award winning composer and pianist who moves effortlessly between the worlds of classical and experimental music. Rani trained as a classical pianist in Warsaw and later studied in Berlin, where she began to explore electronic music and collaborative art forms. Now based in London she has established herself as one of the most adventurous voices in contemporary music. Her immensely diverse catalog includes but is not limited to solo works (Esja, Home, Ghosts), collaborative efforts (Inner Symphonies), film/TV (I Never Cry, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), theater scores and sound installations. She has performed to sold-out audiences at leading venues worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House and the Berlin Philharmonie to the Roundhouse in London. Additionally, Rani continues to compose for film with projects that include Academy Award Nominee Joachim Trier’s masterful Sentimental Value (winner of the 2025 Cannes Grand Prix).

In this mass of activity, then, there is perhaps no better illustration of her compelling urge to explore, research and dissect her work – whether orchestral, electronic or piano, vocal or instrumental, alone or collaborative – nor, more importantly, her subversive energy to take artistic risks and seek meaning beyond the sonic spectrum of the sound. As Rani herself observes, “probably the only stable part of my career is change. And to really understand my music you need to look at each project in the context of my other works, whether solo or orchestral, live or in the studio, and realize that these ‘discrepancies’ in fact define my own voice and style.”