The New York Times proclaims guitarist, composer, and producer “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 “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 is a BAFTA and Academy Award-nominated composer, having collaborated with adventurous filmmakers from the Daniels (he co-scored Everything Everywhere All At Once as a member of Son Lux) to Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

The Housewife reel selections

In the five years since his last solo release, Bhatia has collaborated with a beguiling breadth of artists with little in common other than their iconoclastic outputs. As a member of the experimental pop outfit Son Lux, together with whom he earned Oscar and BAFTA nominations for their head-spinning Everything Everywhere  score, Bhatia has worked with David Byrne, André Benjamin, and Mitski. On Blue, Bhatia’s collaboration with Thai master director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, was recently performed live by Alarm Will Sound during back-to-back nights at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, while the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater internationally toured a twenty minute work set to selections from Bhatia’s 2020 EP, Standards Vol. I. Since its release, Bhatia has continued to deepen his engagement with jazz, appearing alongside Ambrose Akinmusire, Dave Douglas, Ganavya, James Brandon Lewis, and Samora Pinderhughes in addition to producing arresting debut records for Pattishall and trumpeter Riley Mulherkar. 
 
As a composer, Bhatia has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, Walker Art Center, Public Records, the Kennedy Center, Jennifer Koh, Liquid Music Series, National Sawdust, Newfields, The Jazz Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, and more. A voracious collaborator working across musical communities and artistic disciplines, Bhatia has also created with Arooj Aftab, Holland Andrews, Michael Cina, Teju Cole, Sam Dew, Billy Hart, Marcus Gilmore, Shahzad Ismaily, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, Okkyung Lee, Qasim Naqvi, Helado Negro, Kassa Overall, 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. 

Selected Press

• “He treats his guitar, synthesizers, drum machines and electronic effects as architectural elements — sound becomes contour; music becomes something to step into rather than merely follow.” – The New York Times

• “Rafiq Bhatia has a gift for turning expectations inside out.” – NPR Music

• “His music manages to marry the busyness and vibrancy of jazz and the sparseness and sparkle of electronic music.” – BBC Radio 3

• “Brilliant [...] Bhatia has helped forge the electric guitar’s future.” – Electronic Musician

• “Always adventurous … a challenging, captivating listen.” – Stereogum

• “He draws freely from jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music to create work that celebrates hybridity, both musically and personally.” – Jazz Times

• “An incredibly gifted artist who, on his latest solo album, blows up all expectations about what can be done with the instrument and how it should sound.” – NPR Music