Photo: Geoff Albores

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the fifth instalment in Matana Roberts‘ project Coin Coin, a remarkable and visionary twelve-part work exploring African-American history, which stretches back to 2011. When the album news emerged last June, the extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist gave us a phenomenal taster of it with the opening 10 minutes of the album featuring the three-song suite “we said” / “different rings” / “unbenkownst”.  With just over three weeks to go until Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is released, Roberts are sharing two new tracks, ‘shake my bones’ and ‘a(way) is not an option’. Give them a listen now.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is out on September 29th through Constellation Records

Photo: Anna Niedermeier

Extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts is back with a new instalment in their long running and acclaimed experimental project Coin Coin. They have announced Chapter Five: In the garden…, marking the project’s fifth instalment, which counts already four releases, 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres, 2013’s Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile, 2015’s Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee and 2019’s Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis.

To bring Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… to life, Roberts enlisted an outstanding ensemble including bass clarinettist Stuart Bogie, vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain, alto saxophonist Darius Jones, alto clarinettist Matt Lavelle, percussionists Mike Pride and Ryan Sawyer, violinist Mazz Swift and pianist Cory Smythe and Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio, Bent Arcana) took over the production duties.

The album’s theme, a reaction to the current abortion laws in the US, is laid out sonically with elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word. Roberts tells the story of a woman who dies from an illegal abortion. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explained, offering some further insight into the album in their accompanying liner notes essay:

“There is something quite rancid going on in America right now, more so than any time I have seen… a growing cohort of ghoul-like humans who seem to think that your body does not belong to you. We have seen some of this before, we knew it was wrong, and we eradicated some of the issues. It wasn’t perfect how we did it, but we did it. And yet, like a never-ending train wreck, here we are again. The lack of access to safe and legal abortion services disproportionately affects marginalized and low-income communities, who often lack the resources and support to obtain safe reproductive health care. Reproductive healthcare includes abortion….

This over-focus and policing of ovaried bodies are getting in the way of the number one killer of American children today: firearms. This bounce around being dangerously shouted from conservative rooftops about trans bodies is just an extension of this reproductive rights fight.”

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is set for release on September 29th through Constellation Records and ahead of it they are giving us a phenomenal taster of it with the opening 10 minutes of the album featuring the three-song suite “we said” / “different rings” / “unbenkownst”. Here it is.

Photo: M.Tarantelli

This Friday will see the release of Matana Roberts‘ Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis, marking the fourth instalment in her ongoing experimental project Coin Coin. The project counts already three releases, 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres, 2013’s Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile and 2015’s Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee.

Roberts offered a few words about it:

“As an arts adventurer dealing w/ the medium of sound and its many contradictions I am most interested in endurance, perseverance, migration, liberation, libation, improvisation and the many layers of cognitive dissonance therein as it relates to my birth country’s history. I speak memory, I sing an american survival through horn, song, sadness, a sometimes gladness. I stand on the backs of many people, from so many different walks of life and difference, that never had a chance to express themselves as expressively as I have been given the privilege. In these sonic renderings, I celebrate the me, I celebrate the we, in all that it is now, and all that is yet to come or will be… Thanks for listening.”

Following the magnificent first taste from the album, “Raise Yourself Up” / “Backbone Once More” / “How Bright They Shine”, the phenomenal alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist is raising the bar of excitement with a medley of three pieces, “Her Mighty Waters Run” / “Wild Fire Bare” / “Fit To Be Tied”.

Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis is out on October 18th through Constellation.

Extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts has to date released three instalments from her ongoing experimental project Coin Coin, 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres, 2013’s Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile and lastly Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee, released in 2015. But she had previously said that the project was far from finished, promising another 10 chapters. Four years on from the last Coin Coin release, a new instalment is on the way, Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis, releasing on October 18th through Constellation. “Roberts deftly weaves a sonic tapestry of African-American ethnography and history with strands of jazz, blues, free improv, afro-futurism, traditionals, spoken word and avant-garde composition”, describes the label, “always guided by her powerfully personal/universal narratives and wholehearted, singular artistic spirit.”

It’s still a long wait until the album is out but we can already hear a magnificent taste from it, “Raise Yourself Up” / “Backbone Once More” / “How Bright They Shine”. Here it is.