States of Mind

The foundation of Harpreet’s music is decades of schooling and training within the Indian raga tradition, with its scales and frameworks, from which she ventures into various directions.

The result is an album characterised by its mix of sounds, unpredictable structures and seamless transitions within and between each track. According to Harpreet, these are songs made in different phases but also with different mindsets. “I never know how these things will turn out before I make them, they follow their own logic and all I can do is to lead them to some sort of conclusion”, she told me. “What they have in common is that they have originated from a state of mind, even though I often do not know which state that is before I hear the music.”

With this album Harpreet Bansal is once again crossing musical and geographic boundaries and, in her characteristic way, breaking the rules and confinements of our world. It is a way of affirming the roots we have, but at the same time expanding the idea of who we are. Together, these three songs provide a very special soundscape where some listeners will experience the discovery of new territory, while others will feel something close to a homecoming. The plurality in the title, States of Mind, is thus a reminder telling us that the disordered inner lives we sometimes have, also can be understood as the mirror image of the diverse realities in which we live, with all its haphazardness and harmony, turbulence as well as tranquillity – just like Harpreet Bansal’s music.

Harpreet Bansal Trio
Harpreet Bansal, violin
Vojtech Prochazka, piano
Andreas Bratlie, tabla

Cikada String Quartet
Sara Övinge, violin
Johanne Haugland, violin
Bendik Bjørnstad Foss, viola
Torun Sæter Stavseng, cello