Tamar-kali

Brooklyn born and bred artist Tamar-kali is a second-generation musician with roots in the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina. 

As a composer, Tamar-kali has defied boundaries to craft her own unique alternative sound.

The aggressive, melodic, rock of her ‘5 piece’ outfit enchants you with its melody, while delivering a swift kick to the gut with its incisive emotional core. Her debut LP Black Bottom, challenged the alt-rock norm.

“an ambitious new adventure into metal, classical, and progressive styles.” - SONIC SCOOP

“In her lyrics and her own personal style, she blends feminist politics and Afrocentricity in a way that gives her hard rock sound a soulful edge.”
- National Public Radio

The pieces she composes and arranges for her string sextet and voice project: Psychochamber Ensemble, marries the classical music of her Catholic upbringing with post-punk sensibilities.

The start of 2017 marked her debut as a film score composer. Her ‘expressive and varied score swells around dramatic widescreen views of the Mississippi delta’ [Variety], in Dee Rees’ Mudbound which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Her powerful vocals have been featured in the Rees' award-winning film Pariah (2011, Focus Features) and in HBO’s biopic Bessie (2015), starring Queen Latifah. 

A larger audience initially caught a glimpse of her artistry in the documentary AfroPunk. Her incendiary performances and contribution to the film’s soundtrack introduced a generation to her unique story and undeniable talent.

Tamar-kali speaks her lyrical truth with a supreme passion and a voice that will shake your foundation and shatter your expectations with its soulful intensity. Her eclectic sound and versatility has allowed her to perform on a variety of domestic and international stages with a diverse list of artists from Paramore, Vernon Reid, and Roger Waters to Vijay Iyer, Me’shell Ndegeocello and The Roots.