Composer and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi gilds strands of new music into complex forms — deep, circular arrangements that spill out into episodic vocal moments and jazz inflected grooves. Her group Elder Ones arranges precise instrumentation alongside Kidambi’s own vocal experimentation; improvisatory moments are anchored by the band’s explicit instrumental unison. Horn riffs and fragmented rhythmic runs wrap ornately around her triumphant voice in virtuosism, as bass fretwork, bow-sweeps, and harmonium help ground fierce vocalizations. Movements diverge and reunite according to an unknowable psychic framework.
“Kali Yuga,” a reference to “the age of vice” named in Sanskrit scriptures, is the final cycle in her Mother Tongues composition — a work premiered at Roulette in June 2015 for the Emerging Artist Commission. The piece unfolds accordingly as the most violent in the cycle with dramatic flourishes and sax lines blooming over stuttering, syllabic utterances. Kidambi’s collaborators — saxophonist Matt Nelson (Battle Trance/Tune-Yards), bassist Brandon Lopez (Vape Drip) and drummer Max Jaffe (JOBS, Unnatural Ways) — form a tight, impressive unit. Yet, always, they give enough breadth to showcase the roomy composition’s careful attention to space and instrumental recognition — as every cadence contains a detail-oriented view on the role and function of instrument. In a way, the work calls to mind late Talk Talk or Alice Coltrane’s vast work in its painterly use of tone and discipline.
Elder Ones is currently on tour in the Northeast and have been invited to EMPAC to record their debut album in February 2016 for a Spring 2016 release. Scope “Kali Yuga” and tour dates below.
November 17th @ Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT
November 18th @ Bennington College, Bennington VT
November 19th @ The Wheelhouse, Greenfield MA
November 20th @ Trans-Pecos, Ridgewood NY
November 21st @ Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia PA
More about: Elder Ones
