Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden... (2023) [Hi-Res]

Celebrated composer, performer, saxophonist, soloist, band leader, educator, activist, and mixedmedia artist Matana Roberts returns with a new installment of their acclaimed Coin Coin series. For over a decade, Coin Coin has been the central artistic project for Roberts, a remarkable exploration of American ancestry and the nature of memory through “sound quilting”: modern composition that draws on a wide range of musical sources and traditions, along with researchdriven historical and genealogical narratives that yield prose and poetry both spoken and sung, field recordings, and graphic scores.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden... is the first new 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 frequently accompanied by the declarative refrain "my name is your name / our name is their name / we are named / we remember / they forget.”

Matana Roberts (composer / horns / harmonicas / aux percussion / vocal / wordspeak)
Mike Pride (drums / aux percussion / vocal)
Matt Lavelle (alto clarinet / pocket trumpet / tin whistle / vocal)
Stuart Bogie (bass clarinet / clarinet / tin whistle / vocal)
Cory Smythe (piano / vocal / tin whistle)
Mazz Swift (violin / vocal/ tin whistle)
Darius Jones (alto sax / tin whistle / vocal)
Ryan Sawyer (drums / aux percussion / vocal)
Gitanjali Jain (text collage)
Kyp Malone (synths)
Jaimie Branch (Courage 1983-2022)