Roberts, Matana
Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden
Celebrated composer, performer, saxophonist, soloist, band leader, educator, activist, and mixed-media artist Matana Roberts returns with a next installment of their acclaimed Coin Coin series. 'Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden' is the first recorded audio chapter since 2019 and centers upon reproductive rights, summoning the story of a family ancestor who died in early adulthood, from a cause kept obfuscated and hushed, shrouded in disinformation and shame. Roberts reimagines diaristic and oral narratives, delivered in strident streams of spoken word that punctuate the hour-long work, with recurring musical themes. While often jazz-adjacent, and with Matana's inimitable saxophone and indomitable voice at the core, Roberts situates Coin Coin outside the jazz genre and within heterodox pathways of post-modern composition, electroacoustic music, sound collage, experimental voice and sound art.