Photo by Ebru Yildiz
RAFIQ BHATIA
The New York Times proclaims “Rafiq Bhatia is writing his own musical language,” heralding him as “one of the most intriguing figures in music today.” A guitarist, producer, and Academy Award-nominated composer “who refuses to be pinned to one genre, culture or instrument,” Bhatia “treats his guitar, synthesizers, drum machines and electronic effects as architectural elements,” the Times writes. “Sound becomes contour; music becomes something to step into rather than merely follow.”
Bhatia’s third LP, Environments, has been listed among the Best Albums of 2025 by the Washington Post, Nate Chinen’s The Gig, AllMusic, Aquarium Drunkard, Qobuz, I Care If You Listen, and others. SPIN declares, “Rafiq Bhatia terraforms, transforms, and deforms new worlds of sound… Environments is a work of both big physical forces and minute cellular interactions,” while The Wire observes that the album “evokes various interweaving ecosystems with confidence, gratitude, and grace… devastatingly expressive and intricate.”
Since 2014, Bhatia has been a member of the trio Son Lux, releasing several recordings and giving hundreds of performances worldwide. In 2022, they debuted as a film composition collective with their score for Everything Everywhere All At Once, collaborating with David Byrne, André Benjamin, Mitski, Moses Sumney, Randy Newman, and more. The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, with the score receiving Oscar and BAFTA nominations and numerous awards.
Bhatia has collaborated with pathbreaking artists across generations and disciplines, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Arooj Aftab, Kronos Quartet, Vijay Iyer, Billy Hart, and many others. His work has been commissioned by major institutions and presented in dozens of performances across three continents. Bhatia lives in Brooklyn, New York.