Tarun Balani’s New Album Takes Him To His Sindhi Roots

As Tarun Balani settles into a video call from his Lajpat Nagar home in New Delhi, he gestures to a 1968 painting of a woman by his grandfather that hangs behind him. A Sindhi writer, painter, and photographer, his grandfather passed away before Balani was born. But now, through art, a new connection has emerged.

Balani’s upcoming album, Kadahin Milandaasin (“When Will We Meet?”), is a tribute to both his late grandfather and father, who introduced him to Sindhi poetry by the likes of Shah Latif, and to music. “I share the same studio space that my dad rebuilt in 1990. It [the album] was more looking at my identity through the lens of my grandfather.”

In the process of making the album, Balani sifted through his grandfather’s manuscripts, photographs, and paintings. He also spoke to family members about the migration stories of Sindhi families like his own, who moved from Sindh to New Delhi after partition in 1974. Collaborating with linguists and Sindhi historians, Balani shaped a sound rooted in Sindhi folk traditions and cinematic jazz. “I was trying to learn more about my grandfather. But in the end, it was almost like I ended up finding a version of my heritage—and a version of myself—I didn’t even know existed. So it was quite beautiful,” he reflects.

Set to release on May 16 via German label Berthold Records, the album features the previously released single “Lajpat Nagar Sometimes” and now, an exclusive preview of “For Every Man Saved A Victim Will Be Found”—a new interpretation of Balani’s most-streamed track from his 2021 EP In Song.

The seven-track album comprises new songs as well as new takes of earlier works like “Samadhi” and “Locusts Are Descending.” All of them explore themes of migration, identity and cultural preservation. Balani is joined by his bandmates in the group Dharma, featuring Finnish guitarist Olli Hirvonen, alongside his longtime friend and pianist Sharik Hasan and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill.

When asked about sharing something as personal as Kadahin Milandaasin with his bandmates, Balani says it was never about dictating the kind of music they would play. “I think the kind of conversations we have are actually not about music, which is also very interesting, they’re all very deep cats,” Balani recalls. Instead, he shared the stories that inspired each track, from Lajpat Nagar to the poetry of Shaikh Ayaz, the 2020 floods in Sindh, New Delhi foliage and the artist’s father’s passing in 2024. “Most of the things that you’re hearing, whether it’s the all the guitar stuff and the piano stuff, only 40-45 percent of the music was notated. Rest of it is all purely improvised,” Balani says.

An album about grief, Kadahin Milandaasin has been in the works since March last year, sparked by his father sharing photographs taken by Balani’s grandfather—including a self-portrait that became the album’s cover art. The track “For Every Man Saved A Victim Will Be Found,” with simmering drums and a lead trumpet, is inspired by Viktor Frankl’s 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning. “When I had written the song, I wanted to do it with the group, and because of the pandemic, I couldn’t travel, so I ended up doing the solo version of this and release it in 2022,” Balani explains. It’s the oldest piece on the album, but the artist felt inclined to include it. “Somehow it felt like it pieces the entire record together, where I feel like it’s the perfect way to loop back to the top of the album,” he says.

A listening session for the album is scheduled in New Delhi this week, along with a music video for the title track. “What we’ve done for the music video is that I have recreated all those legendary Sindhi parties that we used to have at my house, and even during my granddad’s time, which I’ve just learned about a couple of weeks ago, that all these writers used to come and they used to have these baithaks, and then by the end of it, they used to turn it into like these Sindhi folk song singing sessions,” Balani says.

Alongside collecting more of his grandfather’s photos and artworks, Balani is also planning an audio-visual exhibit to spotlight stories from the Sindhi diaspora. From the latter half of this year through Spring 2026, he will be touring both in India and globally to promote Kadahin Milandaasin.