Raised first in a rural, forest town and then on the shores of Lake Michigan by an Indian father and an amateur historian mother, Malini Sridharan was immersed in both Western and Indian classical music and medieval music from a young age. Sridharan's lifelong fascination with devotional music and literature informs both the subjects of and her approach to making music, at once deeply rooted in tradition and experimentation. The composer and multi-instrumentalist lives in Brooklyn and has released three full-length recordings, the latest of which, Tombeaux, was composed for a large ensemble and produced by Julia Holter.

The seven songs of Tombeaux comprise the Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist’s third full-length recording, and her first written and arranged for a large ensemble. The record’s subject is as expansive as the ensemble; each song is a discrete tale of a death, imagined by Sridharan and told in the first person. From reimagining the work of 16th-century Indian poet Mirabai to exploring Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea afterworld, The Dry Land, to writing about her own grandmother’s death, Sridharan teases out the varied nature of death, applying a broad range of historical and cultural lenses.

 Tombeaux features:

Kate Amrine on Trumpet, Nikita Solberg on French Horn, Chris Piro on Euphonium, Julie Dombroski on Trombone, Heather Ewer on Tuba, Lily Pfeifer on Oboe, Leia Slosberg on Flute, Ford Fourqurean and Allison Heim on Clarinet, Sara Schoenbeck on Bassoon, Concetta Abbate on Violin and Viola, Lenna Pierce on Cello, James Gibson on Bass, and Jon-Michael Reese on Piano.

Produced by Julia Holter, Mixed, mastered, and fixed up by Ryan Beppel, Recorded by Lorenzo Wolff at Restoration Sound.

Photos by Roc Morin and Jillian Kron. Album Design by Jules Evens.