About Ami

Baltimore City

Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her sound ranges from North Indian classical fused with noise/ambient electronics to beat-driven psych and experimental dancepop. The work references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India.


Picking up her… more

Raw Silk

Ami Dang is 1/2 of Raw Silk, a Baltimore-based duo featuring sitar, voice, cello, and electronics. Raw Silk emerged from Alexa Richardson’s and my experimental improvisations. We released our self-titled debut album in June 2018. On this album, I performed and composed sitar, vocals, and produced the electronics. Raw Silk is often a weave of two fabrics, especially two colors that are woven together to create a duo-tone effect. This duo-tone texture represents the combination of Alexa’s and my work together to create a glimmering, yet sometimes rough, musical landscape.

In this debut album, we present five pieces that create a rich and complementary dialogue. Cello and sitar discuss, get heated, grab wrists, and twirl wildly over an electronic landscape of textures. My vocals interweave throughout—yearning, cerebral and commanding. 


  • Argonaut I
    I composed, produced, and performed the electronics and vocals in this piece. The watery, droning electronics give way to this introductory song. The vocal composition is an interpretation of the traditional alaap, the arhythmic section of a Hindustani classical music performance. Alexa’s cello dips and swoons in tandem with my voice to set the stage for the remaining works.
  • Argonaut II
    We move into the second part of this two-piece movement which features a tarana, a Hindustani classical vocal composition with nonsense syllables to highlight the voice as an instrument rather than a lyrical source. The voice playfully calls, “Dirana ohdata yadaya, dira naya, oh dha ta nanana, yadhata, tanana!” while the cello mimics this melody. The two instruments deviate and venture into different directions—staccato and puncturing at times or legato and sailing over the electronic sounds—but always return to the main tarana theme.
  • Malpresentations
    “Malpresentations” builds a conversation between cello and sitar. The two instruments call and respond to one another while finally coming together in agreement but then move forward in heated discussion. We named the song “malpresentations” for a phenomenon that occurs in Alexa’s work as a midwife. Malpresentation is when a baby is coming down the vaginal canal in a non-traditional way (breech or otherwise), and the baby has a difficult time making its way out. The song is a piece that is in phrases of seven beats per measure, which is quite nontraditional and atypical for rhythmic music. Most listeners want to hear music in two beats per measure or four (or variations on 3). As the piece is in seven, it is a little bit off from what the listener might expect—like a malpresentation.
  • Commie Baby
    The lyrics of “Commie Baby” are taken from a Sikh hymn from the scripture the Guru Granth Sahib that describes how all people—whether kings or paupers—are equal and that class (or caste) doesn’t determine one’s spirituality or moral compass. I wrote the vocal melody and performed it in this piece, a meditation on human equality.
  • Love Child
    This piece is Raw Silk’s first experiment in form, a duet of sitar and cello.
  • Argonaut II
    The official music video for Argonaut II, directed by Emily Eaglin.

Hukam

This project features a selection of works from Hukam, a full-length album released in 2011. Ami Dang composed, produced and performed voice and sitar on all songs attached here.
  • Interlace
    “Interlace” is part 1 of 2 movements which flows into “Manali,” the second track on the record. This piece invites the listener to get acquainted with the sound palate of these works by drawing them into my soundscape. I used a distorted sitar riff recorded from this piece as the main driving theme in “Manali.”
  • Manali
    This song reflects on the contrasting experiences and intersection of a female foreign-born woman of South Asian descent (me) with a young girl growing up in the early 21st century in Manali, a Himalayan town that is a popular destination for tourists from around the world. In this song, I wonder what it would be like to be that young girl who is exposed to so much Western culture, behavior and practices through the tourists who are ever-present in the town yet living in a family and society that contains her within a tighter set of traditions and values.
  • Treasure
    I wrote the melody to “Treasure” but took the lyrics from a Sikh hymn from the Guru Granth Sahib that reminds us that “Ratan padhaarat maankaa, suinaa rupaa khaak,” that is, that all treasures, pearls, gold, and precious things ultimately turn to dust. The song is a meditation on consumerism and reminds me that I shouldn’t bother too much with material goods since they ultimately aren’t important. I also use a sample of a sarangi, an Indian violin.
  • Where Nothing Grows
    This ecstatic uptempo tune calls out the fact that we build simulacra (“a planetarium”) at the expense of actually seeing the stars. The song mocks those who “build us up and shut it out”—the “it” in this case being the stars and the sky. I ask, why is it that we prioritize industry and artifice over the natural world?
  • Amorphous Matter
    This piece uses recordings from a Hindustani vocal music class and uses these recordings to create a soundscape over which my voice sings the Hindustani classical music scale. It is part 1 of a 2-part piece that continues with “Amorphous Absolute."
  • Amorphous Absolute
    Both Amorphous Matter and Amorphous Absolute are a study in vocal form using sargam, Hindustani classical solfege, as the lyrical content. The lyrics don’t have any meaning, but instead, the voice explores Raag Maulkauns, a pentatonic scale intended to be performed at night.

Uni Sun

Uni Sun is my 2nd full-length album that features eight experimental, indie pop songs. I wrote these songs between 2011 and 2014 which the record finally being released in 2016. Kate Levitt played and composed the live drums on this album, and we co-produced the electronic beats, with the exception of Sublimate, which was co-produced by Adam Schwarz.


  • Album Art for Uni Sun
    Album Art for Uni Sun
    Photographed and edited by Andrew Strasser, concept by Ami Dang.
  • This Charm
    The Punjabi lyrics are written by my great-great-grandfather, the late Bhai Vir Singh, and I wrote the English lyrics inspired by his words. His poem tells us of a Sikh guru (or prophet) who visited many towns and influenced many people. When it was time for him to leave, the people don’t want him to go. But he tells them that everyone who is doing positive work and encouraging social change shouldn’t just stay in one place, isolated, but that those people should travel and spread their values far and wide.
  • Sublimate
    I wrote the melody and produced the song in collaboration with Adam Schwarz, who contributed to the rhythmic production. The lyrics are a Sikh hymn from the Guru Granth Sahib that encourage us to focus on a universal consciousness and that honoring community will lead us to enlightenment.
  • Yes No
    This song is a meditation on belief and duality, what is real and what isn’t? and how do we come to believe or decide what is the truth?
  • Nazm
    A nazm is a Urdu form of poetry, and this poem is written by Faiz Ahmad Faiz. It is a love song of remembrance that says, "suddenly, in the night, your memory comes to me, just like the spring comes on quietly and as the wind sweeps across the desert, as when one who is sick, without any reason, finds peace.” I arranged the song with a Roland Juno synthesizer going through various effects and distorted drums performed by Kate Levitt.
  • Satgur Hoye Dayaal
    This Sikh hymn is a traditional tune I learned as a child, but I produced this track with a very nontraditional arrangement featuring samples, sitars, and drum kit.
  • Arrange It
    The lyrics of this song were inspired by an advertisement for gold jewelry that I saw in India featuring a young boy and girl dressed to the nines, specifically, in garb that a bride and groom would wear to their wedding. Essentially, the advertisement featured child marriage. I started writing the song feeling outrage about the practice and the fact that this billboard so blatantly promoted this horrible practice in India. As I continued to refine the lyrics, the song turned into a song about defying what is expected of you and using your free will to create your own destiny.
  • Udeekna Live Video
    A live performance of "Udeekna" with a full band, featuring Zach Christensen (bass), Josh Laskin Garcia (drums) and B Taylor (guitar).