Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her sound ranges from North Indian classical fused with noise/ambient electronics to beat-driven psych and experimental dancepop. The work references her musical education and hybrid identity as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.
Picking up her first sitar when she was twelve years old, Dang has studied North Indian classical music (voice and sitar) in both New Delhi and Maryland, and she also holds a degree in music technology & composition from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
Her debut album Hukam came out in 2011 on Ehse Records to critical acclaim. She delved further into the sounds of experimental-indiepop on Uni Sun, her sophomore album that was released on Friends Records in 2016. Along with cellist Alexa Richardson, Ami is ½ of Raw Silk, who released their self-titled debut album in June 2018. Her music defies genre, and she has shared bills with many pop, rock, world, folk, hip hop, and experimental acts, including Grimes, Future Islands, Chairlift, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Beach House, Wye Oak, Lil B, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Dan Deacon.
Her next album Parted Plains, featuring strictly sitar and electronics, will be released in 2019 on Leaving Records.
Aaron Leitko is the co-founder of Washington, D.C. duo Protect-U, who have released records on Future Times, Planet Mu, 1432R. Solo, he performs using a modular synthesizer, improvising dense and percussive compositions meant to evoke the alien energy of electro and the occult of nature.
Thorn Collaborative (Erin Ethridge and Colleen Marie Foley) questions ideas of shared or composite identity, memory and body.We view these as fundamentally fluid in nature, and strive to incarnate that mutability. We engage both the fictional and the real as equal counterparts, weaving together our actual journeys with story and myth. Taking our relationship as subject and tool, we negotiate separation and intimacy in pursuit of their limits. Our attempts to overcome the obstacles that these poles present are continually frustrated. This struggle highlights a paradox inherent in relationships: distance is a wound that can’t be healed because closeness is never complete, but intimacy threatens the sovereign self. We find pleasure and pain in our separateness and in our union. We began working together as Thorn in 2015 while in graduate school at Alfred University where Erin studied sculpture and Colleen studied electronic arts. Combining our skill sets, we employ sculptural processes such as wax and resin casting, metal work, sewing, and electronic media such as video, animation, and sound.
Stages of Soft is a series of four performances over four days drawing from various types of episodic transformations. Taking cues from insects, alchemists, and ancient mythology, Thorn will posit bodies as sites of transformation and instruments for communication. Each day’s performance will leave traces and artifacts, transforming the space throughout the exhibition. The installation and performances together will be a meditation on softened boundaries of the body, intimacy and distance, and ritual metamorphosis.
