Elder Ones at Big Ears 2019

Just announced! Elder Ones will be at North America’s best avant musical festival, Big Ears in Knoxville, Tennessee for 2019. The festival runs from 3/21-24, with Elder Ones playing on 3/21. I will also join Mary Halvorson’s band Code Girl for a performance on 3/22. The line-up this year is heavy, including Art Ensemble of Chicago, Alvin Lucier, Bill Frisell, Evan Parker, Irreversible Entanglements, Joan La Barbara, ICE, Jlin, Rafiq Bhatia, Moor Mother, Wadada Leo Smith, Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, Schlippenbach Trio and many more!

Elder Ones will tour in support of our second album From Untruth, out March 2019 on Northern Spy Records. Stay tuned for tour dates! We are also currently booking dates in Europe for May 2019. Please reach out in the contact page if you are interested in bookings.

Summertime and Mexico City

Summer has been flying by and it was a busy one! After wrapping up a residency at Roulette with an inspiring performance of my dear vocalist compatriots Anais Maviel, Emilie Lesbros, Charmaine Lee and Jean-Carla Rodea in Lines of Light, I headed up to the woods with my boys to record Elder Ones' upcoming record. We're in the mixing/mastering phase now and all I can say is, it is going to be a wild one. Lea Bertucci and I had a nice duo tour, with some dates in the works for this Fall and plans to record, look out!

I have a very exciting debut performance at the historic Newport Jazz Festival, where so many of my heroes have played before me. I'll be with Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, Saturday August 4th!

I'll be in residence at Bucareli 69 in Mexico City this August, where I'll be playing a few shows.

August 18th - Improv with Jacob Wick + Amigos

August 19th - Improv with Generación Espontánea

August 25 - Solo + Improv with vocalists Sarmen Almond and Rodrigo Ambriz

Besos!

Amirtha

Roulette Artist-in-Residence 2018

Hi Internet,

Save the dates! February 27th, presenting my solo work Yajna and new music for Elder Ones and June 17th, a new vocal ensemble work and debut of my voice and electronics duo with Lea Bertucci, both 8pm at Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn)!

I'm excited to be chosen as an Artist-in-Residence at one of my favorite venues in New York. Roulette has been a huge supporter of my work, from the very beginning. From one of my first real gigs in New York at the Greene St. space with Seaven Teares back in 2010, the premiere of Darius Jones' The Oversoul Manual with the Elizabeth-Caroline Unit, a collaboration with the late great Muhal Richard Abrams, a performance run of Robert Ashley's final opera CRASH and my Emerging Artist Commission in 2014, which gave birth to Elder Ones! Roulette has presented some of the most important concerts and collaborations of my career and I am so indebted to them in helping my cultivate my voice as a performer and composer. A special thanks to the Jerome Foundation for making it all possible. I'll premiere my solo work Yajna on February 27th, with new music for Elder Ones and a new vocal ensemble work + duo with Lea Bertucci on electronics on June 17th.

Hope to see you there!

Amirtha

ELDER ONES 'HOLY SCIENCE' OUT NOW ON NORTHERN SPY RECORDS

NORTHERN SPY STORE                                                                  BANDCAMP

“This sound isn’t merely the product of well-chosen reference points; in its abstract way, it makes a unique argument for the virtue of cross-cultural curiosity. Appropriately, the nature of this music is constantly morphing. When a muted introduction gives way to a more celebratory aesthetic, the change is achieved gradually, through small changes in the arrangement. When a demonstration of rage reaches a peak that cannot be sustained, the musicians in Elder Ones are able to navigate back to a more stable feel, without losing the passion and awareness that has animated those foregoing blasts of harshness. The result is an astonishing debut for a composer, and her band.”
— Seth Colter Walls, Pitchfork Magazine
Album Art by Justin Hopkins

Album Art by Justin Hopkins

 

 

Elder Ones Record, Shows and Collaborations!

Hello to my throngs of rabid experimental music fans.

HOUSTON, we have a record. After an amazing recording residency at EMPAC, Elder Ones has an insane record, mixed and mastered by the one and only Weasel Walter. Lookout for a November 2016 release!

I have a few exciting collaborations coming up in June! The first of the month I'll be playing free with Daniel Carter, Che Chen and Sue Garner. We've been meeting regularly for sessions this year, and they've been so magical. I'm singing in the wonderful guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's new band Code Girl at the Jazz Gallery on June 10 and 11. The quintet is Mary on guitar and compositions, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Michael Formanek on bass, Tomas Fujiwara on drums and me on vocals! I'm incredibly excited about this band, and we'll be recording an album later this year. On June 14th I'll premiere a new vocal work by Lea Bertucci for her residency at Issue Project Room with Max Alper and Ka Baird. I'm also psyched to be working with my old friend and collaborator Pat Spadine and the Ashcan Orchestra for his Emerging Artist Commission at Roulette on June 23rd.

I'll be curating my first show at Issue Project Room on June 18th. The concert is part of an ongoing series called Tongues, presenting traditional music and experimental music in a single concert. The show will feature a solo viola set by Mat Maneri and a traditional South Indian Carnatic trio with Ashvin Bhogendra on voice, Anjna Swaminathan on violin and Rajna Swaminathan on mrudangam (barrel drum).

See you in the summertimes!

- Amirtha

 

Elder Ones NYC shows + Tour!

After a long hiatus, with our beloved drummer Max Jaffe recovering from a wrist injury, Elder Ones is finally back! We haven't played since premiering my piece Mother Tongues at Roulette back in June, and if you didn't make it to that now is your chance to hear these tunes!

Dates!

Saturday November 14th, 8pm @ New Revolution Arts, Bushwick Brooklyn w/Ava Mendoza and Flin Van Hemmen Trio

Tuesday November 17th, 8:30pm @ Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University w/Bryan Eubanks

Wednesday November 18th, 8:30pm @ Bennington College, Student Center w/Hark + Heed

Thursday November 19th, 8pm @ The Wheelhouse (4 Court Sq), Greenfield MA w/Travis LaPlante solo, Jake Meginsky

Friday November 20th, 8pm (My birthday!) @ Trans-Pecos, Ridgewood Queens w/Chaser (members of Cellular Chaos, Child Abuse, Nebadon and Unnatural Ways)

Saturday November 21st, 8pm w/Keir Neuringer+Moor Mother Goddess and Eric Ruin's Ominous Cloud Ensemble @ Aux Performance Space at Vox Populi Gallery

September + October

Hey everyone!

After some fun travels in Italy eating lots of pizza and seeing Evan Parker, Paul Lytton and Barry Guy (oh my!) play with my man Peter Evans, summer is winding to a close. That's ok though, because I wasn't quite busy enough and I'm ready to hit the pavement. I'm not a great relaxer or vacationer, so the crisp fall air and the running all over NYC is just what the doctor ordered.

I'm digging into a whole host of stuff. While my incredible drummer Max Jaffe is on hiatus to let his wrists heal, I'm turning focus away from the band for a bit and towards collaborative projects and solo exploration. I'm really honored to be playing on Peter Evans' residency at The Stone! I'll join him along with cellist Leila Bordeuil and bassist Brandon Lopez for a special one-off set. My love and respect for Peter and his music is off the charts! It's going to be a fun night. This weekend at BAM I get to channel June Tyson as the Space Goddess with the Eco-Music Big Band, in the late composer Fred Ho's incomplete Sun Ra opera, with a libretto by the great Miles Davis biographer Quincy Throupe. I'm excited to be working with my old pal Charlie Looker and JG Thrilwell on Experiments in Opera: The Travel Agency is on Fire. These new works take William Borough's cut-ups as textual basis. James Ilgenfritz will direct the Anagram Ensemble and the show will be part of his week at The Stone. I'll be playing more little free improv one offs, so stay tuned to so what crazy hi-jinks ensue.

- Amirtha 

Summertime

Wow! What a year so far! I am so grateful to my incredible band Elder Ones for an amazing premiere of my piece Mother Tongues Suite at Roulette for the Emerging Artist Commission. The concert was a first for me; an entire evening of music that I wrote with my own band. I've had an amazing journey of collaborative music making for the past many years, but this is unlike anything I've ever done and I intend to continue doing it. The band that I have found in drummer Max Jaffe, bassist Brandon Lopez and Matt Nelson on soprano sax is constantly inspiring and largely responsible for motivating me to follow my vision. 

This summer I'll be doing sessions and one-offs with some of my favorite musicians and some new folks I've never played with. In July I'll play Cisco Bradley's New Revolution Arts series with Darius Jones and Social Sundays with Brandon Lopez. Stay tuned for more info!

June 22nd, 2015 Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones: Mother Tongues @ Roulette

In June I will finally be presenting Mother Tongues, a composition that will be performed by my band Elder Ones for my Emerging Artist Commission at Roulette. I cannot believe it is a month away! I've been working on these compositions while simultaneous forming this group, and adjusting my writing and recharging my creative psyche by playing with these incredible musicians; Matt Nelson on soprano saxophone, Max Jaffe on drums and Brandon Lopez on bass. We plan to record this year and release our first record sometime in Fall 2015/Spring 2016. It's been a pleasure to work with these guys and I couldn't be more excited to present this work at Roulette.

SAVE THE DATE: June 22nd, 2015 @ Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217)

Tickets + Info HERE

Roulette Emerging Artist Commissions 2015 Announced!

Hi Internets,

I am so proud and excited to announce that I am one of the Jerome Foundation's Emerging Artist Commission through one of my favorite venues, Roulette! What a pleasure to get a call from a true blue old school guy like Jim Staley, and what's more, the other grantees are some of the finest people around. My dear friend Dave Ruder is among the brains on the list! Congrats to everyone! I've been quietly putting together a band all summer and feel very pleased with the development of the group. I can't wait to share this music with you all.

Here's the full list of grantees:

Amirtha Kidambi, Ben Stapp, Aaron Burnett, David Ruder, Ha-Yang Kim, Leslie Flanigan, Tyshawn Sorey, Mary Kouyoumdjian and M.V.Carbon.

- A