Electronic Ragas and Improvisation with Ami Dang

Back in the winter months of early 2025, we sat down with Ami Dang to speak about her plans for her 2025 Unheard series. Drawing from influences ranging from acid house innovator Charanjit Singh to Kate Bush, Ami shared her vision for bringing together artists from Baltimore and New York, creating performances that blend sitar improvisations with electronic textures through loose structures that allow for spontaneous musical conversations.

Pique-nique: How are you approaching the series?

Ami Dang: I'm excited to be part of something involving other artists – people I've wanted to work with but haven't been able to, or wanted to explore improvisation with. Being from Baltimore gives me an opportunity to bring musicians from there. For the April show, I'm bringing synthesist and sound designer ZT Christensen from Baltimore and vocalist and guitarist Michael Beharie who is based in New York. This summer or fall, I'm excited to play with Camilla Padgitt-Coles and Roshni Samwal. Roshni is a Trinidadian-American tabla player, producer, synthesist, and DJ. I connected with her about 10 years ago through Camilla. We were supposed to play together at Brooklyn Raga Massive in March 2020 right when everything shut down. We eventually shared a bill at National Sawdust in 2022, and now we'll finally collaborate in 2025. With Camilla, it's the opposite story. I've known her for about 20 years since college. I knew her first as a visual artist, and later she got deeper into music and light work. I'm excited to see what she'll bring – hopefully something involving both light and sound. For the last show, I'm considering an ensemble from Baltimore, or perhaps a mix of New York and Baltimore artists.

I'm particularly drawn to people who combine acoustic and electronic elements – which seems to be a theme for many artists you've brought here. I'm also interested in non-traditional instruments or interesting combinations, like horns with modular synthesis. I should mention Susan Alcorn, an amazing experimental pedal steel guitar player from Baltimore who recently passed away. She was an incredible improviser who pushed her instrument beyond traditional country music. She's someone who would have been perfect for this kind of residency. I just wanted to honor her memory.

Pique-nique: Beyond instrumentation, what do you look for in a collaborator?

Ami Dang: It varies with each person. ZT Christensen is excited about working with the quad setup and primarily uses modular hardware to explore how sound moves through space. That's very different from Roshni, who shares a parallel practice with me drawing on Indian classical music heritage and combining that as producers. When we shared a bill at National Sawdust, I noticed we use many of the same tools. Sometimes I'm looking for someone doing something both complementary and similar to my work.

Pique-nique: You're collaborating with people from both New York and Baltimore. What do these cities mean to you musically?

Ami Dang: New York is so saturated with talent. What I love is that every scene and genre goes really deep here. There are amazing artists and spaces dedicated to experimental music. Baltimore doesn't have the same kind of improvised music scene. We have the Red Room venue and the High Zero Festival of Improvised Music, but not many spaces devoted to experimental music like New York has. However, Baltimore has produced so many artists relative to its size – it's about a 16th the size of New York. This creates a lot of cross-genre collaboration across music and artistic forms. It happens on a different scale, but there's a lot of creative cross-pollination. It's fun to experience both worlds – performing in New York while staying connected to what's happening in Baltimore.

Pique-nique: I'm curious about your creative process – for your albums and for how you'll approach a collaborative improvised show.

Ami Dang: For my albums, my process has become more composed than ever. I work in Ableton from the beginning, usually starting with synth layers, an ostinato, or something rhythmic – typically some kind of chordal structure. But when I sing and play sitar, that's where I improvise, both in recording and production. Sometimes the final recorded works end up more composed, but the process starts with improvising and jamming. I'll do multiple takes and then select from them. I do this in performance too. At my recent show at Roulette, I was playing what might become produced pieces, but freely placing sitar and vocals over them with a small modular setup and Ableton Push. I love improvising, and this residency comes at a perfect time because I've moved away from improvising with others lately, focusing more on solo improvisation. This will be refreshing. For my approach to the residency, I'm thinking about loose phrasing or maybe a graphic score to create an overall arc for the night, without restricting us harmonically or musically. Perhaps some question-and-answer sections followed by droney passages.

Pique-nique: Will you want to discuss the approach with musicians beforehand, or just start playing and see where it goes?

Ami Dang: With two 45-minute sets, having no conversation beforehand feels too open and free. I think I'll want to have some talk, but I'll also include a section each night with space for no direction. That way we can experience both approaches.

Pique-nique: What about your influences? Who are your big influences, and where might your influences come from in the future?

Ami Dang: I always struggle with this question! I draw a blank trying to decide between who I'm listening to now versus who deeply influenced me in the past. My childhood landscape has profoundly shaped my music. I grew up in a very religious Sikh Punjabi household. My parents immigrated here in the '70s and brought with them Bollywood music and religious traditions. We attended services every Sunday where I learned Sikh music and a bit of harmonium. I might bring my harmonium to one of these concerts – I love that instrument. The soundscape of my childhood was Sikh classical sacred music and '70s-'80s Bollywood. As I came of age, that foundation merged with late '80s and '90s pop music and electronic genres – especially trip hop in the late '90s.

Pique-nique: Trip hop like Portishead?

Ami Dang: Yes, Portishead hardcore! Also Massive Attack and Hooverphonic, this Belgian band. Then classics like Kate Bush – the queen. Philip Glass's collaboration with Ravi Shankar and “Einstein on the Beach” were significant influences too. A crucial album for me is "10 Ragas to a Disco Beat" by Charanjit Singh. He's credited as the inventor of Acid House because his album predates other Acid House music. In India, he had access to vintage synths and combined them with guitar, writing everything in Indian raag.

Raag is similar to a Western mode but with different rules. Raags connect to seasons, times of day, or moods. Unlike modes, which are just sets of notes, in raag the ascending pattern might differ from the descending one, and there are essential motifs that define each raag. Singh created 10 tracks that sound similar in style but use different raags – a truly beautiful record.

Pique-nique: How long is it? The raags sometimes go for hours.

Ami Dang: You could do one raag for an hour, but these are just quick compositions. In traditional Indian classical music, a raag performance is quite extended. It begins with alap, an abstract droney section without defined rhythm. The tabla player might add occasional accents, but it's not rhythmic. Now that I'm discussing this, it might be a nice format for one of our events – to follow the Indian classical performance structure. The alap section is loose and slow, followed by a medium-tempo light composition, and then higher tempo sections. This faster section is what connects to riff rock. There's an interesting link between sitarists and heavy metal or hard rock – the ability to riff on the sitar. In the West, Indian music is often associated with drone and healing, but there's also this riff-rock approach to sitar playing. In Indian classical structure, you move from alap to ghat (the more upbeat composition), then escalate to jhaala (very fast tempo), while potentially adding other short compositions throughout.

Pique-nique: Sounds incredible. I know Brooklyn Raga Massive does all-night events at Pioneer Works.

Ami Dang: Yes, it's amazing. I need to attend one of those.

Pique-nique: Is there an overarching story or journey you see through your work, and where is it heading?

Ami Dang: For me it's about creative output broadly. I'm drawn to big projects. While I'm still making music, my energy is now shifting toward a venue project I'm developing. I'm approaching that as creating an experience, similar to the beautiful space you have here. My musical journey started out of necessity. Music has been part of my life since childhood, and after school ended, I faced the question of how to continue making music. The only solution was to do it myself. I was immersed in the DIY scene, playing shows across the US between 2005-2012. Being in those spaces embedded me in various communities. It was invaluable to learn from other artists and witness their creative approaches.

Pique-nique: Was your music setup the same back then?

Ami Dang: It's evolved while maintaining core elements of sitar, voice, and electronics. When I started solo performances, I just used a few pedals and a mixer for feedback effects. It was simple. Later I incorporated more production techniques with samplers and tracks. I've gone through various band iterations, typically with a drummer and sometimes guitar, synths, or keys. My friend Amy Reed played keys in my last band – she's a great improviser who also sings. We've sung backup for each other. I might invite her to join these performances too.

Pique-nique: Will you be performing at your new venue space?

Ami Dang: Eventually, yes – perhaps for an early fundraiser. The main goal is to host diverse programming.

Pique-nique: What do you hope audiences will take away from your performances?

Ami Dang: Being in community is crucial right now – sharing positive, healing experiences that provide respite. It's important not to seek these experiences in isolation. While I don't believe my work alone will change the world, I hope people connect with it viscerally. There's nothing like experiencing live music physically. We can listen to great recordings at home, but feeling sound move through your body while surrounded by community creates a unique connection. That's what I hope to facilitate.

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For her first edition, Ami Dang invites ZT Christensen—known for his brooding, melodic work with modular synthesizers and bass, echoing both pop and Baltimore’s vibrant electronic scene—and Michael Beharie, whose sound moves between sound system culture, pop transmission, and free improvisation. Tickets.