Amirtha Kidambi & The Elder Ones (US)

Developing an inquisitive and inspiring body of work from her base in New York, Amirtha Kidambi has been quite an active figure through a sprawling network of collaborations with artists like Lea Bertucci, Mary Halvorson, Darius Jones or William Parker. With the Elder Ones, Kidambi conveys her most personal and defying impulses, joining her own voice, harmonium and synthesizer with Jason Nazary’s drums, Lester St. Louis’ double bass and Alfredo Colon’s soprano saxophone as a gateway to conjure the most spiritual jazz into a dimension both ancient and futuristic. After debuting with Holy Science in 2016, in spiritual alignment with the pan-global music of Alice Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders, 2019’s From Untruth was the necessary call to arms in these troubled times: free jazz fire, sustained drones, devotional chants from South India and exploratory techniques entangled in a hypnotic current under a voice that refuses to resign and keeps searching for new truths and possible futures. Music borne out of need in times of need, against systemic oppressive practices that endure, urging for liberation from a supremacy based on a false historical truth. 

The band played at the 2022 edition of OUT.FEST (October 5 – 9).