Hania Rani presents Chilling Bambino

Before Hania Rani even said goodbye to Ghosts, the 2023 album that catapulted the rigorous pianist to new levels of crossover success, with two shows on the Iberian Peninsula in May 2025, she introduced Chilling Bambino, an audacious new work at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. On a stage shrouded in fog and cut by bright light, Rani surrounds herself with keyboards, many of which come from Sequential Circuits’ groundbreaking Prophet series. For the show, Rani sculpts ambient pieces in real time, triggering samples beneath her bank of keyboards as she moves from long, drifting tones to throbbing trance. Rani collapses a personal history of immersive electronic sound into an hour.

Rani does not, however, leave the past alone. As Chilling Bambino, she often revisits some material from Ghosts, recontextualizing it by emphasizing the atmospherics that have so often existed in her work. Due to its sometimes-gentle nature and the generosity of her playing, Rani was often included in discussions of neoclassical music that embraced ambient soundscapes, especially during the pandemic. She resisted that inclusion, telling The New York Times, “It’s not being composed to help people relax. The music might be slow—not so loud, not upbeat—but it’s actually intense.” She draws that distinction clearly with Chilling Bambino, leaning into immersive slowness that retains her intensity.