Emily Violet
Despite being the 5th in a projected 12 album series, this record feels monumental all on its own. Absolutely stunning.
Favorite track: how prophetic.
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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Vinyl edition is a double 10" pressed at Optimal (DE) packaged in a wide spine 350gsm jacket with colour flood inside, 300gsm printed inners, and 170gsm 500x250mm fold-out artwork/liner notes insert. Includes DL card. All printed on uncoated papers and boards, featuring mixed-media collage artworks by Matana Roberts.
Constellation is currently offering a special discount when you order a Bandcamp bundle of Coin Coin Chapter Five + the 4 other volumes in Matana Roberts' celebrated series: matana-roberts.bandcamp.com/album/coin-coin-5-album-bundle
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Please be aware that VAT or other taxes/duties *may* be levied by your country on orders outside North America. This is random and out of our control.
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD edition comes in a mini-gatefold paperboard jacket with printed inner disc sleeve and fold-out liner notes insert. All printed on uncoated papers and boards, featuring mixed-media collage artworks by Matana Roberts.
Constellation CD shipping rates:
USA: FREE SHIPPING
Canada: $2 first item, $0.50 each additional
International: $8 first item, $1 each additional
Please be aware that VAT or other taxes/duties *may* be levied by your country on orders outside North America. This is random and out of our control.
Includes unlimited streaming of Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden...
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Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the latest instalment in composer, improviser, saxophonist, and visual artist Matana Roberts’ visionary project exploring African-American history through ancestry, archive and place. Weaving together elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word, Roberts tells the story of a woman in their ancestral line, who died following complications from an illegal abortion. At a time when reproductive rights are under attack, her story takes on new resonance. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explains. By unpacking family stories and conducting extensive research in US public archives, Roberts has created a rounded portrait of a woman who is, as their lyrics put it, “electric, alive, spirited, fire and free.”
Each part of Coin Coin explores radically different musical settings, from the free jazz and post-rock eruptions of Chapter One to the solo noise collage of Chapter Three. Featuring a new ensemble steeped in jazz, improvisation, new music and avant-rock, helping to expand the project’s existing sonic palette, Chapter Five is no exception. Roberts is joined by fellow alto saxophonist Darius Jones, violinist Mazz Swift (Silkroad Ensemble, D’Angelo), bass clarinettist Stuart Bogie (TV On The Radio, Antibalas), alto clarinettist Matt Lavelle (Eye Contact, Sumari), pianist Cory Smythe (Ingrid Laubrock, Anthony Braxton), vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain and percussionists Ryan Sawyer (Thurston Moore, Nate Wooley) and Mike Pride (Pulverize The Sound, MDC). The late, great trumpeter jaimie branch, who was due to play on the album, receives a credit for “courage”. The album is produced by TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone, who also contributes synths.
As a composer, Roberts draws upon strategies associated with the post-war avant-garde, including John Cage and Fluxus member Benjamin Patterson’s conceptual approaches to scoring and performance. The immersive work of Maryanne Amacher, in which “sound and the body almost collaborate” is another key influence. “That is the foundation for me of the Coin Coin work,” they explain. “It’s not just the alto saxophone as an instrument placed in the jazz canon, it's the alto saxophone as an instrument that can be utilised to affect the body.”
Listeners will be struck by Roberts’ ability to mould diverse sounds into a cohesive whole. The spoken word passages are accompanied by driving modal jazz on “how prophetic”, minimalist synth loops on “enthralled not by her curious blend” and cantering folk forms on “(a)way is not an option”. These are interspersed with instrumental pieces that range from avant-garde abstraction and squalling free jazz, to solo saxophone reflections and Mississippi fife and drums blues. There’s a further evocation of American roots music in the powerful group vocal arrangement of “but I never heard a sound so long”, adapted by Roberts from the plantation lullaby “All The Pretty Horses.”
While this new chapter of Coin Coin focusses on a female-identified protagonist, others haven’t (Chapter Three being from the perspective of a male ancestor) and Roberts intends for future chapters to continue to cover the breadth of the gender spectrum, as well as their Native American heritage. “I'm proud that people say that the Coin Coin work speaks of a woman's story. But I want to make sure that it retains its inclusivity, because what we look like is not always what you see.” This reflects Roberts’ own experiences as a queer person of colour. For the remaining chapters of Coin Coin, Roberts will continue exploring identity and ancestry. “Expect it to keep heading towards a liberation of the human spirit.”
credits
released September 29, 2023
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)
“but I never heard a sound so long” arranged by Matana Roberts from “All the Pretty Little Horses”
a traditional African American plantation lullaby, author unknown
Produced by Kyp Malone
Recorded at Bunker Studios in Brooklyn by Nolan Thies
Mixed at Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango in Montréal by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh
Mastered at Grey Market in Montréal by Harris Newman
Album artwork by Matana Roberts
Recording made possible in part by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago
supported by 298 fans who also own “Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden...”
Does anyone have a source/link to a translation of the Yiddish (and other) lyrics? Love the atmosphere and musicianship on this album, yet I'm confident I would enjoy it more if I could understand the words. Thanks in advance! thegreatgrackle
supported by 297 fans who also own “Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden...”
First half is difficult and beautiful; second half is mournful and ethereal. There are deep movements within. Jessica Moss is an amazing artist. aconitum vulparia
