MUMBAI: Jazz-inspired drummer and composer Tarun Balani’s upcoming album Kadahin Milandaasin is his most emotional record to date, capturing a deeply personal journey through his Sindhi heritage via the memories of his grandfather and father.
The album explores Balani’s identity by delving into the rich stories of his ancestral homeland in Sindh, the music and the literature his father shared with him, and of the longing and grief over the lost homeland of Sindh that Balani’s family, like many others, still carry.
“The Sindhi community is complex and hybrid, with multiple layers and dimensions,” he says of the inspiration to write this album, adding, “Perhaps that’s why it has taken me all these years to finally discover my personal connection to its culture, art, music, and literature — through an extremely personal lens.”
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As a child, Balani grew up surrounded by his grandfather’s paintings and photographs and would find a way to open his father’s cupboard to take his grandfather’s Yashika 635 box camera and play with it all day. “I would pretend to be a filmmaker, creating stories in my head. In a way, from a very early age, I was already seeing the world through my grandfather’s lens,” he recounts. “It’s taken me many years to realize that I’ve been grieving his passing and loss, even though I never met him. And this was the starting point of Kadhain Milandaasin.”
This album not only reflects on his personal history but also resonates with the broader experience of migration and the quest for belonging. Each track serves as a testament to the enduring connection between past and present, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into Balani’s journey and the broader narrative of the Sindhi diaspora.
Balani enjoys telling stories through sound and sees himself as a sonic storyteller rather than being categorized as just a musician, drummer, or composer. And in ‘Kadahin Milandassin’, he has created music from a place of total acceptance and peace of the person and artist he is. “For Kadahin Milandassin, I’ve opened a new chapter in my writing and storytelling. It speaks unapologetically about who I am and where I come from, and I feel very comfortable in my skin — it’s like I have nothing to prove. This is who I am. I am deeply proud of this record, and I want listeners to hear that,” he says impassionedly.
The first half of the seven-track record features all new compositions, while the second half includes reinterpreted studio versions of pieces that have been previously released. “I feel the new compositions point to a new writing style and direction for me, while the older compositions remain very close to my heart, and we love playing them. Together, they complete the sound of the album — hinting at what’s to come, yet grounded in our sound as a band,” Balani, who created this album with his band Dharma, featuring Finnish guitarist Olli Hirvonen, alongside his longtime friend, band mate and pianist, Sharik Hasan from India and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, explains.
“This record is also about friendship — the musical bond that Sharik, Adam, Olli, and I share. I am indebted to them for their contribution to the sound — it is truly the sound of a band, not an individual and that’s what makes this record so special.”
Kadahin Milandaasin, the album
The first single from the album, ‘Lajpat Nagar Sometimes’ is an ode to Lajpat Nagar, a refugee colony in Delhi that became home to migrants coming from Sindh to New Delhi in the early 1950s. The trumpet, played O’Farrill, brilliantly captures the wistful loss that permeates every aspect of life for families affected by the Partition, like Balani’s.
The title track was inspired by the lyrics and poetry of Shaikh Ayaz, specifically his poem Tiri Pawanda, which includes the line ‘Tade Milanda Si (we will meet then).’ The poem, reflecting on partition, inspired Balani to flip the line to ‘When will we meet?’
As a surprise element on the record, Balani has sung lyric ‘kadhain milandaasin’, his first-ever singing attempt. “The lyrics ‘When will we meet?’ or ‘Kadahin Milandaasin’ in Sindhi are sung by me as a metaphor for the lost homeland in Sindh, for my grandfather, whom I’ve never met but have always admired and been deeply inspired by, and now also for my late father. The trumpet feature, beautifully played by Adam, was designed with the intention of complimenting my vocals, creating a constant layer or chant in the background,” he adds.
‘Lajpat Nagar Sometimes’ and ‘Kadahin Milandassin’ together form one long composition, split into two movements, which were recorded in a single take. “‘Lajpat Nagar Sometimes’ depicts the cyclic nature of my family’s existence there and doesn’t have a pronounced ending while ‘Kadahin Milandassin’ begins just before the fermata/pause between the two songs. We recorded it in a single take, as we would perform it live. This is also how it will appear on the vinyl, where the two songs will play seamlessly, without a pause or silence.”
The title track is complemented by the release of a poignant video as well, directed by Gorkey Patwal and features Balani’s family and friends. Shot in his ancestral home in Lajpat Nagar, it attempts to recreate the scenes from the countless baithaks with artists, writers, and photographers in his grandfather’s time, to the legendary family get-togethers “we had in the 90s, where we would often break into Sindhi folks songs and dancing post devouring a lavish menu of Sindhi delicacies.”
“Through the music video for Kadahin Milandaasin, I wanted to highlight and celebrate how the Sindhi community has preserved its language, traditions, and values despite displacement. Much of our heritage lives in oral history, family archives, traditional food and dishes, folk forms, and daily rituals,” he says.
‘The Laburnum Blooms’ is an ode to Delhi’s beautiful amaltas (laburnum) trees, which bloom at the onset of summer, with Olli Hirvonen’s guitar painting a sublime image. ‘Sailaab’, written after the 2020 floods that ravaged the Sindh province takes its name from the word that combines two Persian words, ‘aab,’ meaning water, and ‘sair,’ meaning to wander, and can be translated as wandering water.
“It’s a composition that moves between a written A section and a more free, avant-garde-style piano solo and outro crescendo, which represents the flow of the water. Our pianist, Sharik, always interprets my music beautifully, and he’s the featured artist on this track,” explains Balani, who also included a reworked version of his 2023-released single ‘Samadhi’, on the album. “This tune and its title took on a completely new meaning after my father’s passing, which is why I chose the date of his passing, 2.11.2024, to commemorate him,” he adds.
The evocative Kadahin Milandaasin explores the broader themes of migration, identity, and cultural preservation, and released on German label, BERTHOLD records, on May 16.
