Nout (France)
Delphine Joussein - flute, fx
Rafaëlle Rinaudo - electric harp
Blanche Lafuente - drums

Missing link between Nirvana and Sun Ra, the collaboration between Delphine Joussein, Rafaëlle Rinaudo and Blanche Lafuente aims at pushing their instruments beyond their limits, with the enthusiasm of a mad scientist in front of his vials. Flute, harp, drums: a rare combination that this trio turns upside down. In the wake of John Zorn's experiences on the borders of jazz and noise, Nout imagines its music as a scenario with surprising twists: we believe to be Ellen Ripley in Alien but we find ourselves in Indiana Jones; we start with our eyes shut on the red seat of a movie theater and we end up rocking in a moshpit.

Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones (USA)
Amirtha Kidambi - vocals, harmonium and compositions
Matt Nelson - soprano saxophone
Alfredo Colon - tenor saxophone,
Lester St. Louis -  bass
Jason Nazary - drums

Elder Ones features a wealth of talented NYC musicians with Jason Nazary on the drums, Alfredo Colon on tenor saxophone, Matt Nelson on soprano saxophone and Lester St. Louis on the bass, shared among some of the most innovative bands in creative music including Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, William Parker’s Sutras Ensemble, Battle Trance, GRID, Metropolis Ensemble, Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Anteloper, and more.

Sometimes the eye of a storm can draw upon the chaos around it, taking on its energy and consolidating it for use. Something like that is going on in Elder Ones, the quartet led by the vocalist and harmonium player Amirtha Kidambi. She creates drones on the harmonium — an old, air-powered keyboard — and coaxes her bandmates into ripping them apart. Then her voice funnels that energy out in a scorching beam. In its best moments, it’s like a mix of a Cuban sonero’s citrusy cry and a riot grrrl yowl. – New York Times, Giovanni Russonello

The band’s forthcoming third record, New Monuments, which will release Spring 2024, grapples with the cataclysmic events of pandemic years, from the racial justice and labor movement, to violence against Asian Americans and the farmer’s protests in India.

The music is oriented towards protest and social justice, challenging the structures of colonial, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy through the practice of liberation music. In its spirit, it’s equally born of spiritual and free jazz, punk, creative music and the avant-garde, drawing influence from John and Alice Coltrane, Rage Against the Machine and Bad Brains, Hindu devotional bhajans and Carnatic music, and the AACM, Sun Ra or Pharoah Sanders. They have previously released two records, Holy Science (2016) and From Untruth (2019).