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.

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.

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 range and versatility has allowed her to perform on a variety of domestic and international stages with a diverse list of artists from Vernon Reid and Roger Waters to Vijay Iyer and Moses Sumney.

2017 marked her debut as a film score composer. Her work on Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated “Mudbound,” garnered her the World Soundtrack Academy’s 2018 Discovery of the Year Award.

Her subsequent film scores; Joshua Marston’s COME SUNDAY, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Martin Sheen and THE LIE, directed by Veena Sud reveal an expanding palette that originates from her emotional artistic core.

2019 was a hallmark year for her work as a composer. In addition to composing her 1st symphonic commission, she scored 4 films total; 3 which will be featured at the Sundance Film Festival 2020. They include Dee Ree’s anticipated thriller the Joan Didion novel adaptation ‘THE LAST THING HE WANTED’ starring Anne Hathaway, Willem DaFoe and Ben Affleck, Josephine Decker’s psychological drama, ‘SHIRLEY’ starring Elisabeth Moss as famed horror author Shirley Jackson and Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT making its rounds at Sundance just ahead of its January 31st release. The 4th film, a documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble was released this summer.

Tamar-kali’s current artistic landscape includes a range of projects; a theatrical concert work, Demon Fruit Blues is in development with The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, a digital short for LA Opera’s forthcoming Winter season and a solo EP featuring a collection of eclectic torch songs, ‘My Morning Cameo’.

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