no earplugs

The forthcoming album, titled All Empires Fall (March 2027), was recorded in December 2025 and is the fourth Elder Ones studio record as a band. This marks the first studio recording featuring the potent lineup of vocalist, composer and keyboardist Amirtha Kidambi (Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, Darius Jones, Luke Stewart), saxophonists Matt Nelson (Lydia Lunch, Tune-Yards) and Alfredo Colon (Henry Threadgill, Moses Sumney, William Parker), bassist Lester St. Louis (jaimie branch’s Fly or Die, Wendy Eisenberg’s Darlin’, HxH), and drummer Jason Nazary (Saint Abdullah, jaimie branch’s Anteloper, Helado Negro).— a band that has developed undeniable creative chemistry through relentless international touring.

Utilizing synthesizers and expressive pedals, the sound ranges from psychedelic dub and noise to free jazz, grooves, and drones, drawing from global folk traditions with a punk ethos. The material for the album was composed throughout 2025, a turbulent year globally and in the US. Its themes explore Indigenous sovereignty, war, increasing wealth inequality, anti-immigrant sentiment, and climate change.

The sprawl of the performance reaffirms that, on top of everything else, the group can fucking cook. – Levi Dayan for The Quietus (November, 2025)

Since their 2016 debut album, Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones have become a powerhouse, carving out blasts of horns, bass, drums, and the ever-inspired voice of their leader. But it turns out the group is even more powerful live, at least judging by New Monuments Live In Vilnius. Performing their 2024 album New Monuments in its entirety, Elder Ones use improvisation to reshape each piece. But the core energy remains, with Kidambi’s urgent, nuanced singing driving things forward. They’re capable of beauty, subtlety, swing, and even a thrash-like abandon, all of which emerge on “Farmer’s Song,” a cry for the working class that’s both confrontational and celebratory. – Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp, November 2025 by Marc Masters

Stylistically the music churns through various traditions without settling into a dominant form, building textures, counter melodies, and propulsion from any potential source, bringing the leader’s activism and still expanding musical palette together with greater cohesion and effectiveness than anything she’s ever done. – Peter Margasak (The Quietus)