December with Elder Ones, MoMA screenings and a live Outernational pod
Follow the new @outernationalpod account on IG! Listen to the latest episode with Omar Ahmad, and check out the ones you missed!
Upcoming in NYC:
December 8th @ MoMA - An Evening with director Suneil Sanzgiri, double feature of An Impossible Address/Two Refusals, which I had the honor of scoring
December 14th @ Pioneer Works - Press Play fair, Outernational pod live with Samora Pinderhughes and tabling for Palestine Handmade
December 16th @ Pioneer Works - False Harmonics: Elder Ones, Omar Ahmad, Sinono
January 10th @ Winter Jazzfest - Dada Strain showcase with Elder Ones + special guest Nick Dunston
Please donate:
Give Warmth to Gaza (Sameer Project)
Elder Ones Photo by Juri Hiensch at Le Guess Who? Festival: Left to right, Jason Nazary, Matt Nelson, Amirtha Kidambi, Lester St. Louis, Alfredo Colon
Hello dear comrades,
It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of 2025, what feels like a never ending year of nightmarish struggle. As we head into 2026 with a looming war in Latin America and urban warfare at home, I’m heartened to see how neighbors stand-up for each other in the streets and some glimmers of hope in how electoral wins on the left show the power of grassroots organizing and the shifting tide of everyday people’s consciousness.
As a musician, I’ve spent my year thinking about our role in these times of upheaval and how we can support movements, help develop people’s consciousness and the ways we can challenge our own material complicity in these violent systems. I’ve been focused on my work on these fronts with my 10-year-old and counting band Elder Ones, my new Outernational podcast and continuing to activate in our artist community.
Elder Ones is no longer on Spotify, and I want to make the case for you to get off too! Daniel Ek invested $700 million in profits that he made on the backs of musicians he didn’t pay (Spotify pays less than .004 cents per stream, but it’s not monetized until you get to 10k), into military AI tech that will undoubtedly be used to kill civilians. Resources and alternatives can be found here.
I spent the year writing and recording Elder Ones latest album during my fellowship at Pioneer Works and we head into the studio next week. We also just released a new live double-LP on November 14th, recorded in Vilnius in October 2024 and you can buy the physical copies on Bandcamp (CD/digital available). If you need convincing, read some stellar reviews of the record on Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp, a great one from The Quietus “this group can f*cking cook” and another from Wire Magazine.
In October, we went back to Europe where I was a guest curator for Le Guess Who? playing with Elder Ones and doing a live edition of the Outernational podcast with the legendary poet Saul Williams, South African musicians Masello Motana and Asher Gamedze and our dear friend from Palestine Dirar Kalash. I’ll be releasing that as an Outernational episode soon, so stay tuned. Here’s a great live review by Nate Chinen of our Berlin Jazzfest performance on that tour, that talks about the urgency of the message in our set.
December has some chills and thrills coming up, with Elder Ones performing the full new set at Pioneer Works to close out my fellowship on December 16th, in an amazing bill with our dear friends Palestinian-American electronic composer/sound artist Omar Ahmad and Sinono (isa crespo pardo, Lester St. Louis, Henry Fraser). On the 14th I’ll be doing another live Outernational pod for the Press Play fair at Pioneer Works, interviewing Samora Pinderhughes on his work with incarcerated communities. Coming up soon on December 8th, MoMA will have a double feature of films directed by my longtime collaborator Suneil Sanzgiri, and it will be my first time hearing the scores I composed in a proper theatrical setting!
As we get ready to get cozy, hibernate and indulge in holiday excess, I want to boost some important fundraisers for Gaza and Sudan (see above). Gaza is flooded as they experience continuous bombardment and the genocide in Sudan has reached new heights of depravity. I hope this season you boycott Target, Amazon and others as you do your shopping and support independent artisans, small businesses and Palestine fairs. On December 14th at Press Play, Suneil and I will also be tabling at the fair for Palestine Handmade where you can buy beautiful keffiyeh, handmade olive wood crafts, Tatreez embroidery and more!
Wishing you and yours a safe and liberated season.
Solidarity,
Amirtha