Kerani
Kerani is a Belgian born composer and arranger, and new-age keyboardist of Hungarian and German descent. She primarily writes instrumental music and adds occasional vocalizations. Her music has been described as complex, sophisticated, and carefully crafted, with classical influences.[1] Kerani has written music for several documentaries, re-orchestrated children's songs, sang backing vocals on other artists' albums and has recently also performed in concert with Terry Oldfield. In May 2015, Kerani won the ZMR Music Award for Best Neoclassical New-Age Album with her third album "Arctic Sunrise".[2]
Biography
Kerani was born in Belgium to a Hungarian father and a German mother, and currently lives in the south of The Netherlands where she runs her own music recording and production studio. As a child she often listened to the great classical composers. When she was four years old, her family got an old piano, which she taught herself to play. "The rise of electronic music in the late Seventies and Eighties was a revelation to me", she says. "The new sounds of Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Kraftwerk and Mike Oldfield boosted my inspiration."
In 1986, Kerani teamed up with a couple of studio musicians to record the instrumentals Seagullsong and Oblivion. The single got regional airplay and Oblivion became the tune of a breakfast show on Radio 2 Flanders. In this period, she also performed as the lead vocalist and keyboardist in a cover band.
In the year 2000, Kerani moved to Italy where she taught English language courses. She wrote and published a book of children's stories called Cherub, which tells the story of a little angel who helps children.
In 2011, Kerani composed the soundtrack for 4 documentary films commissioned by the Historical Society of the Roerstreek in the Netherlands. In the same year, she also released her first album, Wings of Comfort. Her second album, The Journey, was launched exactly one year later. Both recordings received strong airplay. In this period, she has also worked for Peaceful Radio, a Dutch internet radio station, where she conducted interviews with various international new-age artists, such as Rodrigo Rodriguez and Sabine van Baaren.[3]
In the run-up to the release of her third album Arctic Sunrise in 2014, Kerani wrote the soundtrack for two documentaries that were commissioned by the NWO - the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research. She also re-orchestrated 15 children's songs for an instruction DVD for disabled children, called 't Steyntje zingt. Arctic Sunrise went to #2 on the International Zone Music Reporter Chart for new-age music, got airplay on hundreds of radio stations worldwide, was a Top 10 album on the annual ZMR rankings,[4] and won the ZMR Neo-Classical Album of the Year Award.
In May 2015, just a few days before she performed in concert with Terry Oldfield, Kerani launched her fourth concept album, Equilibrium [5] On this album, she is joined by special guest musicians including concertmaster of the South-Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Wilfred Sassen, violist Joanne Wigmans, cellist Joep Willems and brass musician Jos Gijsen. Some of the musicians are known internationally, such as shakuhachi flute player and recording artist Rodrigo Rodriguez , guitarist Romain van Beek and flutist and vocalist Jan Mertens.
Discography
- Wings of Comfort (album 2011)
- The Journey (album 2012)
- Echo of our Souls (single 2013)
- Wonderful Peace/Stralande Jul (single 2013)
- Arctic Sunrise (album 2014)
- The Story of Christmas (single 2014)
- Equilibrium (album 2015)
- Days of Yore (single 2016)
References
- ↑ http://www.gaiaprimeradio.com/review-of-the-album-equilibrium-by-kerani/ GAIA Prime Review
- ↑ http://zonemusicreporter.com/admin/2014award_finalists.asp ZMR Music Award Winners 2014
- ↑ https://www.peacefulradio.eu/?s=Kerani&x=10&y=13 Peaceful Radio, Netherlands
- ↑ http://zonemusicreporter.com/charts/Top1002014.asp
- ↑ http://www.mwe3.com/reviews/Kerani2015/ Record Label & Music Spotlight - Full interview with Kerani