Maati Baani

Maati Baani, meaning the language of the earth, is a Mumbai-based folk-fusion and world-music project founded in 2012 by Hindustani vocalist Nirali Kartik and composer-producer Kartik Shah. Fusing India's rare folk traditions and Hindustani classical music with funk, blues and world sounds, they have collaborated with more than 200 musicians from some 30 countries and are known for championing folk musicians from India's remote villages.

Founded in 2012 after Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah met in Ahmedabad, Maati Baani built a signature body of work, songs like Tore Matware Naina, Balma and Rang Rangiya, and ambitious collaborative series such as The Music Yantra, drawing folk artists from Kutch and Rajasthan together with musicians from Iran, Mongolia, Israel, the USA and beyond. Over more than a decade they have championed folk musicians such as Mooralala Marwada and Dappoo Khan, using social media to bring their sound to global audiences, and continue to tour and release music that keeps India's folk heritage accessible and alive.

Maati Baani's sound joins Nirali Kartik's Hindustani classical vocals to Kartik Shah's genre-crossing production, weaving together Hindi, Gujarati, Sindhi and Rajasthani voices with global instrumentation. Their signature practice, travelling into India's interiors to record with village folk artists, and stitching in collaborators filmed at landmarks around the world, has made them pioneers of a distinctly digital, deeply rooted folk-fusion, at once authentic and global.