Amirtha Kidambi And Elder Ones at October Revolution Of Jazz & Contemporary Music Festival at Fringearts

A strikingly versatile and broad-spectrum vocalist, Amirtha Kidambi collides worlds, cultures and visions into cosmically expansive new forms. The intrepid nature of her musical imagination can be found in the diversity of her collaborations: Mary Halvorson’s newest quintet Code Girl; Charlie Looker’s early music-inspired dark folk band Seaven Teares; Darius Jones’ vocal quartet Elizabeth-Caroline Unit and Samesoul Maker; and Pat Spadine’s analog percussion and light ensemble Ashcan Orchestra. She also leads the quartet Elder Ones, which uses composed material and loose structures as a template for improvisation...

read more

A strikingly versatile and broad-spectrum vocalist, Amirtha Kidambi collides worlds, cultures and visions into cosmically expansive new forms. The intrepid nature of her musical imagination can be found in the diversity of her collaborations: Mary Halvorson’s newest quintet Code Girl; Charlie Looker’s early music-inspired dark folk band Seaven Teares; Darius Jones’ vocal quartet Elizabeth-Caroline Unit and Samesoul Maker; and Pat Spadine’s analog percussion and light ensemble Ashcan Orchestra. She also leads the quartet Elder Ones, which uses composed material and loose structures as a template for improvisation. Oscillating between worlds of modal Sufi-like circular grooves and free improvisation to jagged rhythmic precision and meditative drones, Thyagaraja, Coltrane or Stockhausen could be equally suspected as illegitimate fathers of their sound. Amirtha’s background in Hindu devotional singing led her to incorporate the Indian harmonium as an accompaniment and compositional tool, lending the Elder Ones’ music an otherworldly ambience, while her work with Darius Jones and the Carnatic tradition inspired the use of abstract syllables to liberate the voice from specific literal ideas to facilitate unhindered improvisation.

show less