European premiere

Kidambi’s Elder Ones is an experimental free jazz ensemble made up of composer and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (Mary Halvorson's Code Girl), saxophonists Matt Nelson (Battle Trance, GRID), bassist Lester St. Louis (jaimie branch's Fly or Die, Nate Wooley’s Mutual Aid Music), and drummer Jason Nazary (Anteloper, Little Women, also performing at Rewire 2024 with Saint Abdullah). The ensemble’s instruments form an intricate landscape for Kidambi’s voice to traverse; she battles against its mountainous heights before sliding speedily down its slopes. Truly making an instrument of her vocal chords, Kidambi’s syllabic, frenzied, and powerful utterances weave into the alluring, hypnotic, and confronting jazz melodies of the ensemble. Dealing with issues such as power, capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and violence, Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones are not shy to confront and resist systems of oppression and control through their music. As such, a sense of ancestral energy pulses through their performances; it feels as though they are not alone on the stage, but are rather carried along by an old knowledge buried deep within the music.