Rafiq Bhatia
Rafiq Bhatia
Photo: John Klukas

Photo: John Klukas

“His transient approach, combined with his obsession of assiduously studying the past in order to break cleanly from it, makes him one of the most intriguing figures in music today.”

— New York Times

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 guitarist, composer, 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 first LP for Anti- Records, 2018’s Breaking English, has been described as “stunningly focused...a vibrant new instrumental sound world where crushing beats, nimble guitar licks, and shifting electronic textures coalesce with a visceral bite” (Chicago Reader). His subsequent release, 2020’s Standards Vol. 1 EP, renders repertoire from the American songbook “completely deconstructed, infused with brand new textures and electronic effects, dreamlike and beautiful” (BBC). In conjunction with the releases, Bhatia has toured internationally, presenting his music at Acud Macht Neu, the Andy Warhol Museum, Big Ears Festival, Cleveland Museum of Art, Constellation, deSignel Bouge B Festival, Duke Performances, Hopscotch Festival, The Kitchen, Le Poisson Rouge, Mass MoCA, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, MoMA PS1, Moroccan Lounge, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, NYC Winter Jazzfest, Oberlin Conservatory, Solid Sound Festival, and more. 

As a composer, Bhatia has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, Walker Art Center, four/four × Public Records, Jennifer Koh, Liquid Music Series, National Sawdust, Newfields, Sound Expeditions, The Jazz Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, and the Traverse City Dance Project. His forthcoming collaboration with filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will premiere in Fall 2022 as a part of the FotoFocus Biennial: World Record.

Since 2014, Bhatia’s primary collaborative association has been as a member of the experimental pop project Son Lux, joining founder Ryan Lott along with drummer Ian Chang as a co-writer, co-producer, and guitarist. Together, the trio has released three albums — Bones (2015), Brighter Wounds (2018), and the three-volume Tomorrows (2020-21)—as well as numerous EPs, and given over five hundred performances on three continents. Recent highlights include being sampled by Timbaland and scoring the Daniels’ film Everything Everywhere All At Once for A24, including collaborations with David Byrne, André Benjamin, Mitski, Moses Sumney, Randy Newman, and more.

A voracious collaborator working across musical communities and artistic disciplines, Bhatia has also created with Arooj Aftab, Holland Andrews, Olga Bell, William Britelle, Michael Cina, Teju Cole, Sam Dew, Dave Douglas, Marcus Gilmore, Shahzad Ismaily, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, Okkyung Lee, Qasim Naqvi, Helado Negro, Kassa Overall, Chris Pattishall, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Alex Somers, Moses Sumney, Rajna Swaminathan, Kiah Victoria, David Virelles and others. He has contributed to recordings on Brownswood, City Slang, ECM, Glassnote, Greenleaf Music, Joyful Noise, New Amsterdam, RCA and Temporary Residence Ltd. 

Bhatia is a Jerome Foundation Composer/Sound Artist Fellow, and a former artist-in-residence at Duke Performances. He has been invited to speak by the National Gallery of Art, Big Ears Festival, Berklee College of Music, Melbourne International Jazz Festival and IUPUI, and is currently adjunct faculty of the New School’s Performer-Composer Master of Music program. His music is published in association with Domino Publishing Company.

A native of North Carolina, Bhatia lives in Brooklyn, New York.