I found Tarun Balani accidentally in a pile of LPs at Pagal Records, HKV.
The Shape of Things to Come lay awaiting its beholder in the Compilation crate. Whatever couldn’t be defined by genre was put there.
From the first second on we felt it. There was something undefinably good about it. We couldn’t say what it was like because we couldn’t compare it to much else besides of itself. What cannot be defined becomes its own variable.
Originality is the true mark of greatness and Balani is truly a pioneer. We put the record on loop in trying to decipher. We couldn’t grasp. We could only feel.
The Shape of Things to Come was sold to someone lucky a few days later. I wasn’t happy about it because as an art seller you sold what you wished to possess to others because you didn’t have the money to possess it yourself.
…
Though that vinyl of The Shape of Things to Come is long gone… I write this review for Tarun Balani’s upcoming album to possess him with my words forever.
Tarun Balani is set to release his new album- Kadahin Milandaasin on May 16 through BERTHOLD Records. This deeply personal work explores his Sindhi heritage, tracing the migration journey of his grandfather from Sindh to New Delhi.
The album’s title translates to ‘When Will We Meet?’
The personal is truly political…
Tarun Balani has composed a soundtrack to his own ancestry. The first single from the album- Lajpat Nagar Sometimes is an ode to Lajpat Nagar- a refugee colony in Delhi that became home to Sindhi migrants in the early 1950s.
Balani writes: –
My grandfather migrated from Sindh to Lajpat Nagar and our ancestral home there holds a very special place in my heart. I feel incredibly fortunate to have my studio in Lajpat Nagar and share the same space that my grandfather once used as his studio to paint.
Lajpat Nagar Sometimes is both an homage to my ancestral roots and a sonic reflection of my influences, ranging from Sindhi folk music to jazz and improvised music—and everything in between.
…
The title track is equal parts melancholy and equal parts genius. It reminds me of Turkish Delight and the sheer ambiguity of its outro…
This album is both an exhibition and an archive with its themes of longing, identity, and cultural preservation. Balani’s compositions blend traditional Sindhi folk music with contemporary jazz, creating a rich tapestry of rhythm and improvisation. He crafts a sonic landscape that bridges the past and present.
There’s a certain depth on this record that makes me cry. It speaks to a hole in my heart. I am an immigrant too. Where does the immigrant derive his root (mool) from?
The pain of parting is inherited by the subsequent generations of the immigrant. There is no term for this intergenerational inheritance of nostalgia…
Where the immigrant is from stays forever unanswerable. They belong perpetually trapped to the disorderly statehood known as the kingdom of diaspora.
The Laburnum Blooms is jazz orchestrated to the levels of greatness. I hear obvious inspirations of Godspeed You…
Sailaab is a song of silences that is full of emotions…
Locusts Are Descending is more than eight minutes long and just as strong. My head bobs, my heart stops. Should I dance, should I cry?
Jazz finesse meets atmospheric synth meets tense ambient… The pain of a generation comes together on this record… Balani has made a museum of his grief and exhibited it…
Maybe I will buy this vinyl for myself… Maybe I will only sell it… But I will surely recommend you listen to it…
