Hania Rani (Hanna Raniszewska) was born in Gdańsk. She started learning to play the piano at the age of seven. Apparently, four years later she already began experimenting with other styles of music. In 2009, she graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Music High School. Raniszewska graduated from the piano class at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and continued her education through postgraduate studies in Berlin.
Melodies, arrangements, songs
Her first encounter with the song form was a collaboration with the band Domowe Melodie – Raniszewska’s arrangements can be heard on both their albums Domowe Melodie (2012) and 3 (2014). Cellist Dobrawa Czocher, Hania Rani's friend since music school and later collaborator, also worked with the now-defunct band.
Together they recorded the album White Flag (2015) with instrumental arrangements of Grzegorz Ciechowski’s songs, prepared by Raniszewska. Her arrangements are not revolutionary; they do not radically change the musical ideas contained in the songs written by Ciechowski. Where did the idea for such an album come from? Dobrawa Czocher comes from Tczew, the hometown of the leader of Republika and Obywatel GC – she grew up on his music. Tczew hosts the annual In Memoriam festival – it was there that they first presented their material. In an interview for Twój Styl magazine, Rani recalled a concert at which, for the first time, she could present her original arrangements to a wider audience:
I remember how nervous I was before that concert. But I don't remember much of the performance itself, because it was so windy that we had to improvise by attaching the notes to the music stands with laundry clips. Today I think I wouldn't be where I am without that project.
From 2017 to 2019, together with singer Joanna Longić, she formed the band Tęskno. The artists met a few years earlier on the Internet – Longić asked Raniszewska to compose music for her wedding. Later, the pianist helped her to work on her own material. Eventually, they decided to form a band together. On the album Mi (2018) skilful arrangements and delicate but catchy melodies are accompanied by an attempt to achieve a sound that fascinates Raniszewska – a sound that we can hear on albums by Nils Frahm or Ólafur Arnalds. One can try to describe them with words such as: 'dreamy', 'fuzzy', 'ethereal'. Tęskno achieved the intended results; no wonder, after all, the album was mixed by Michał Kupicz, who is regarded as one of the most talented Polish music producers. Bartek Chaciński described the project in Polityka magazine:
Hania Rani and Joanna Longić bring the classically understood chamber music to the Polish pop scene by the handful – the whole set of songs was perfectly arranged for voices, piano and string quintet.
In 2019, Tęskno was nominated for the Fryderyk Awards in the category 'Phonographic Debut of the Year'. Their debut album was named 'Album of the Year' by the listeners of the Radiowy Dom Kultury programme in Radio Trójka and by the Interia.pl portal. It also received the Artistic Award of the City of Toruń named after Grzegorz Ciechowski. Hanna Raniszewska left the band Tęskno in autumn 2019.
Hania Rani has also created songs with other performers. In 2018, she recorded the instrumental and vocal part for the song Drunk by Kamp! A year later, she added piano and vocals to the ambient song What If I created by Tomasz Bednarczyk, who works under the artistic name New Rome. The same year saw the release of her three songs composed for Misia Furtak for the album What Will Come?. In 2020 she recorded the song Odprowadź (Piano Version) with Mela Koteluk – the song received a Fryderyk Award in the category 'Best New Performance'.