About
Harpreet is an independent Indian musician known for setting the poetry of Kabir, the Sufi mystic Bulleh Shah, and Hindi and Punjabi poets such as Nirala, Pash and Faiz Ahmad Faiz to his own guitar-based compositions. His approach places the beauty of the written word above melody, bringing forgotten and towering poetic voices to contemporary audiences.
Harpreet gave his first public performance in 2011, composing and singing the title song for a play, Kutte, later picked up for Kanu Behl's film Titli (2015). Since then he has built a reputation as one of India's most distinctive poet-musicians, performing at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Taj Mahotsav, the Amarrass Desert Festival, the Mahindra Kabira Festival and internationally at the Esplanade in Singapore, and drawing praise from The Hindu, India Today and the BBC for his guitar-laced renderings of Kabir and Sufi poetry.
The artistry
Harpreet's music is built around the word: feverish, expressive guitar arrangements beneath a voice that can roar or fall to a whisper, in service of poetry rather than pop hooks. Best known for his interpretations of Kabir and Bulleh Shah's kafis, and for verse by Nirala, Pash and Faiz, he belongs to a lineage of poet-singers, alongside the likes of Rabbi Shergill and Indian Ocean, who have brought this literature to the stage.
[Atlas Perspective] Harpreet is a distinctive, literature-driven artist who fills a valuable niche between music and poetry. For festivals and events prizing depth and the spoken and sung word, he is a strong, differentiated choice.
Harpreet has helped bring the poetry of Kabir, Bulleh Shah and modern Hindi and Punjabi poets to contemporary audiences, sustaining a poet-singer tradition that treats literature as living, performable art. His work connects classical and Sufi verse to a new generation.