Rafiq Bhatia
The New York Times proclaims, “Rafiq Bhatia is writing his own musical language,” heralding him as “one of the most intriguing figures in music today.” A composer, guitarist, producer, and sound artist “who refuses to be pinned to one genre, culture or instrument,” Bhatia makes sculptural, meticulously crafted music that finds common ground among ecstatic avant-garde jazz, mournful soul, fractured beats and building-shaking electronics. “He treats his guitar, synthesizers, drum machines and electronic effects as architectural elements,” the Times writes. “Sound becomes contour; music becomes something to step into rather than merely follow.”
Bhatia’s 2018 album Breaking English finds a visceral common ground between ecstatic avant-jazz, mournful soul, tangled strings and building-shaking electronics, resulting in a "stunningly focused new sound" (Chicago Tribune) that resembles “science fiction on a blockbuster scale” (Washington Post). Featuring a cast of revered jazz musicians including the three-time GRAMMY-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, 2020’s Standards Vol. 1 renders repertoire from the American songbook “completely deconstructed, infused with brand new textures and electronic effects, dreamlike and beautiful” (BBC). At times, Bhatia uses the studio to destabilize, twisting the stereotypes of Indian music he heard as a child into noise beyond recognition. But frequently, he exaggerates the human qualities of the sound he mines, conveying intimacy and tension through elements many producers would scrub clean.
Bhatia has toured internationally, presenting his music at Big Ears Festival, Cleveland Museum of Art, Constellation, deSignel Bouge B Festival, Duke Performances, Hopscotch Festival, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Mass MoCA, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, MoMA PS1, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, NYC Winter Jazzfest, Oberlin Conservatory, Solid Sound Festival, and Unclassified Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra. As a composer, Bhatia has been commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Jennifer Koh, Liquid Music Series, National Sawdust, Newfields, Public Records, Sound Expeditions, The Jazz Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, Walker Art Center and more.
Bhatia is the first-generation American son of Muslim immigrant parents who trace their ancestry to India by way of East Africa. Early influences such as Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, and Madlib—as well as mentors and collaborators including Vijay Iyer and Billy Hart—prompted him to see music as a way to actively shape and represent his own identity, not limited by anyone else’s prescribed perspective. Bhatia lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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Breaking English / Building Bridges: Rafiq Bhatia at Duke Performances
See All Recent Press
- Rafiq Bhatia Announces First New Music In Five Years, EP 'Each Dream, A Melting Door' In Collaboration with Chris Pattishall
- Rafiq Bhatia 2025 Press Photo by Ebru Yildiz
- Rafiq Bhatia - Each Dream, A Melting Door Bio
- Rafiq Bhatia Of Son Lux To Perform At The Oscars This Sunday With David Byrne + Stephanie Hsu
- Rafiq Bhatia Releases Unsettling New EP 'Standards Vol. 1' Today, Watch "In A Sentimental Mood" Video Now
- Rafiq Bhatia Announces Otherworldly EP 'Standards Vol. 1', Listen to "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Now
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Feb 21st 2025
Each Dream, A Melting Door
