#Amirtha Kidambi

[zef-zef]

Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci

source: astralspiritsrecords 📸: Alex Phillipe Cohen

[fuchsiaswingsong]

Listen/purchase: Third Space by Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones

[whtaever]

[nbernardo]

Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones @ OUT.FEST, Barreiro - 06.10.2022 © Nuno Bernardo

[dustedmagazine]

Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones — New Monuments (We Jazz)

The great DC artist, audio scholar and activist Thomas Stanley once described Sun Ra’s concept of the Alter Destiny as “a small chunk of language, a key unlocking large powers and capacities that will allow us to realize sustainable futures that are not subordinate to the same imperial regime that fucked up our planet in the first place. History is the plantation, abolitionist Ra reminds us, and it is time to break loose from these chains and leave.” This is a particularly resonant message today, in an era of late capitalism, deteriorating institutions and genocidal warfare. Yet, the inevitable future promised to us by this seemingly unending quagmire presents a sense of stability in its repetition of failures that enables many of its subjects to cling to its promise even as we further careen into the abyss. Amirtha Kidambi is not one of those people, and in the five years since her previous release with her group Elder Ones — a period marked by the pandemic, the George Floyd protests, and a rapidly-encroaching American fascism — her resolve has only been strengthened. Their record New Monuments is a battle cry for building not a better future, but a different future entirely, one free from the ghosts of colonialism and imperialism.

Kidambi has a background in both new music and DIY, and navigating these disparate worlds has informed her unique approach to improvised music. This is on full display on the opening track “Third Space,” on which Kidambi sings with punk-inflected energy while maintaining complete control and authority over her vocals. The track takes its name from influential postcolonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of a liminal space in which, in the context of colonial ambivalence, different cultures interact with each other. The (very) basic gist of this theory is that, in post-colonial society,  culture is constantly moving, never one singular thing and never the property of any singular people. In turn, on this track, and the album as a whole, Kidambi defies any essentialized notion of “Indian music” or Indian jazz (which has become yet another needlessly limiting genre term in this “spiritual jazz” era), and not just by invoking Bhabha. From the moment the record kicks off, new agey world music treacle is left behind on another planet entirely.

On this record, Kidambi is backed by a top group of New York improvisers, including Elder Ones mainstay Matt Nelson on soprano saxophone alongside cellist Lester St. Louis, known for his work in the late Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die group, and Jason Nazary, frequent collaborator of Darius Jones and one half of Jaimie Branch’s Anteloper group. Rounding out the quintet is Eva Lawitts, whose propulsive basswork pushes the multi-part compositions on the album forward. On album centerpiece “Farmer’s Day” the band balances a modal, in-the-pocket groove with loose improvisation, with a particularly dazzling solo from Nazary showing off his impressive and dynamic range as a percussionist. After this solo, the song slows to a crawl as Kidambi invokes the now-yearslong protest movement of Indian farmers against a series of bills designed to weaken working farmers and benefit corporations: “We work from cradle to grave / conditioned like a slave.” This is protest music, as clear in its radical intentions as it can be, but the Elder Ones find plenty of room for beauty in struggle. This is especially true on the title track, which has a synth line that, if isolated, would call to mind the devotional music Alice Coltrane recorded in the 80s. Kidambi asks “in the end is history always doomed to repeat?” The answer she arrives at for this unanswerable question is to “build new monuments to new futures,” an affirmation of the Alter Destiny. Though the struggle is neverending, these new futures are still well within our capabilities. All it takes is a level of fearlessness, something Amirtha Kidambi has shown in spades on this record.

by Levi Dayan

[theparanoid]

Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci - Phase Eclipse

(2019, full album)

[Musique concrète, EAI, Sound Poetry, Tape Music]

[bruce-adams]

“This place of shame confused with glory.” From a poem by Sun Ra as performed by Angels & Demons (Amirtha Kidambi and Darius Jones) Sunday, April 8 at Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois. The line struck me after all the events In Tennessee and beyond. Prescience from the spaceways.

[brackishbrooklyn]

THURSDAY! We’re toasting j at the record shop. 17 videos streaming online so pour one out wherever you are 🥃 Brackish Brooklyn Video Fest III
a tribute to jaimie branch
Thursday March 9, 2023
8PM cst / 9PM est

Streaming online from Experimental Sound Studio Chicago
NYC watch party at The Record Shop, 360 Van Brunt St. Brooklyn

$10-20 suggested donation to Brackish and The jaimie branch Foundation via https://donorbox.org/the-jaimie-branch-foundation

Video premieres inspired by jaimie and live footage from Brackish’s 2022 season featuring:

Miriam Parker, Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez & No Land | Lester St Louis, Kim Alpert & Jason Nazary | Helado Negro & jaimie branch | Fay Victor | Nick Dunston, Isa Crespo Pardo, Joan Sue & Zekkereya El-magharbel | Angela Morris | Jason Ajemian & jaimie branch | Janel Leppin & Anthony Pirog | Neti-Neti: Matt Evans & Amirtha Kidambi | Rose Tang & jaimie branch | Atheer Yacoub | Lester St Louis | Lesley Mok & Henry Fraser | Kim Alpert & jaimie branch | Blood Luxury: Erica Dicker & Dennis Sullivan | Dustin Carlson | Wo Chan | Ryan Easter & Gregory McCallum Jr | Laura Schuler & Aaron Edgcomb Brackish – music & art is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Statewide Community Regrants Program, as well as from a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature, both administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. (at Record Shop) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpaNBWpuiRV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cyanidetooth]

Nick Didkovsky & Guigou Chenevier! Amirtha Kidambi & Luke Stewart! Nunn! Bleep! Mekons! Petrol Girls! Automatic! The Dance! Ex White! Public Body! Pigeon! Blatant Dissent! Dividers! KACIMI! Radnik! Puppet Wipes! Smegma! Crazy Doberman! Surface Of The Earth! Joseph Nechvatal!

[artwalktv]

What is liberation when so much has already been taken? Who has come for more? "Golden Jubilee", the third film in a series of works about memory, diaspora and decoloniality, takes as its starting point scenes of the filmmaker’s father navigating a virtual rendering of their ancestral home in Goa, India, created using the same technologies of surveillance that mining companies use to map locations for iron ore in the region. A tool for extraction and exploitation becomes a method for preservation. The father, sparked by a memory of an encounter as a child, inhabits the voice of a spirit known locally as Devchar, whose task is to protect the workers, farmers, and the once communal lands of Goa. Protection from what the filmmaker asks? Sanzgiri’s signature blend of 16mm sequences, 3D renders, direct animation, and desktop aesthetics are vividly employed in this lush, and ghostly look at questions of heritage, culture, and the remnants of history. Director, Producer, Editor, 16mm film & Additional Animation: Suneil Sanzgiri Director of Photography & Photogrametry: Sumedh Sawant Assistant Cameraman: Rushikesh Hande Drone Videography: Chirag Sadhnani Visual Effects Supervisior: Karan Taley Original soundtrack composed by Amirtha Kidambi & Booker Stardrum Performed by Amirtha Kidambi, Booker Stardrum, Angela Morris, and Nathaniel Morgan Devchar Narration & Interviews: Shashi Sanzgiri Additional Interviews: Shaliu Sanzgiri Translation: Tanvi Sanzgiri

[burlveneer-music]

My WVUD playlist, 3/25/2024

Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda (Live at Carnegie Hall) Nala Sinephro - Live at Real World Studios with Edward Wakili Amirtha Kidambi & Elder Ones - Farmer's Song Moor Mother - GUILTY (feat. Lonnie Holley & Raia Was) Niecy Blues - Soma Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble - Thanking the Universe Green Dome - Chevrons NOUT - Nuit de Sabbat (feat. Beñat Achiary) Julia Holter - Talking to the Whisper Loula Yorke - Staying With the Trouble Nailah Hunter - Strange Delights Brandee Younger - Brand New Life (feat. Mumu Fresh) Amanda Whiting - Liminal

[zef-zef]

Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci - Under the Influence from: Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci - Phase Eclipse (Astral Spirits, 2019)

Lea Bertucci - Tape [Tapes], Electronics Amirtha Kidambi - Voice

[thehiphoplifestyle]

Let Amirtha Kidambi’s New Monuments be your call to action

Let Amirtha Kidambi’s New Monuments be your call to action

[hiphoptothestreets]

Let Amirtha Kidambi’s New Monuments be your call to action

Let Amirtha Kidambi’s New Monuments be your call to action

[twistedsoulmusic]

Created by Amirtha Kidambi and her protest group, Elder Ones, New Monuments is an excellent masterclass in communicating one’s feelings into a passionate, raw, and emotionally charged collection of pieces. It is filled to the brim not only with sublime musical flavours but also with powerful messages of protest that can be immediately associated with the activist efforts of Amirtha and her musical group.

[zhanteimi]

Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones - New Monuments

USA, 2024, avant-garde jazz / vocal jazz