Thursday 27 October 2016, 8pm
Very excited to welcome composer, saxophonoist and all-round musical polymath, Matana Roberts to OTO. Over the course of her ongoing Coin Coin project, Roberts has carved out an utterly compelling and evocative soundworld all her own – “creating a unique and very personal experiential body of sound work that speaks to, and reminds people of all walks of life to reach, stand up, give voice, regardless of difference, created from mere labels of intellectual classification.”
“Memory is a powerful thing, but it’s so private, fluid, and unreliable that it can seem almost impossible to capture in a work of art—and history is often no more stable, once you look closely enough. Roberts has succeeded at evoking both, though, and gives her audience a long look at something ghostly, tragic, and beautiful. She is carving out her own aesthetic space, startling in its originality and gripping in its historic and social power.” – Peter Margasak
“A major talent” – The WIRE
“The spokeswoman for a new, politically conscious and refractory jazz scene” – Jazzthetik
Matana (mah-tah-Nah) Roberts (they/them) is an internationally documented multidisciplinary artist,composer, saxophonist,and sound experimentalist.
Roberts works in many contexts and mediums, including improvisation, sound art, dance, poetry, and theater. they made two classic records as a core member of the Sticks And Stones quartet in the early 2000s and has gone on to release a diverse body of solo and ensemble work under their own name on a variety of international record labels. They are perhaps best known for their acclaimed Coin Coin project, a multi-chapter sound work of “panoramic sound quilting” that aims to expose the mystical roots of American creative expression while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement with global narrativity, history, community and political expression within improvisatory structures. Constellation began documenting the Coin Coin project in 2011 and has released the first 5 of a projected twelve album-length “chapters” to date.
They have been invited to teach, lecture, run workshops and/or take up artistic residencies in countless places under a variety of conditions and with diverse communities over the past two plus decades.
Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker
He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.
As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024
"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé
"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY
