(Reprinted from the January 2024 issue of Downbeat magazine)
So many female histories are forgotten—if they were ever noted to begin with. On COIN COIN Chapter Five: in the garden (Constellation), composer and multi-instrumentalist Matana Roberts not only asserts this truth but seeks to remedy at least one such omission. Through a compelling constellation of free improvisation, spoken word, avant-rock, and new music, Roberts relays the lived experience of an unnamed woman in her family line; despite the story’s tragic ending, the protagonist emerges as a sacrificial hero for our times.
In the garden is the fifth of 12 chapters in Roberts’ ambitious COIN COIN recording project. Operatic in scope, this particular installment comprises 16 tracks, each a glimpse into the messy interpersonal dynamics of gender, race, societal oppression, bodily autonomy, family disruption—and how we love, despite all. Roberts’ writing—both their music and words—reflects the emotional complexity of these issues. The opening track, “we said,” for instance, uses bits of sound—clanking chimes, mumbled syllables, bird-like flutes, bleating horns—to engender trepidation, but Roberts doesn’t leave us there. As the recording progresses, subsequent shifts in mood lead to explicit statements, such as “how prophetic” and “a(way) is not an option” and “for they do not know,” where spoken word sections externalize the protagonist’s inner monologue in the face of denied personhood.
These monologues are a tough listen, even though offset by pieces like “the promise,” a lullaby-like group sing, and “shake my bones,” with its noisy, rumbling catharsis. However, by “…ain’t I…your mystery is our history,” the concluding track, the jumble of sounds and voices is almost a comfort—in ongoing struggle lies hope for change. One absorbs this message mostly intuitively, though—and Roberts necessarily leaves lots of space for listener reaction.