“Like getting a glimpse into another dimension” – these are just some of the ecstatic descriptions of Matana Roberts’ visceral and galvanising live performances. Weaving together intense outbursts of free improvisation, engagement with narrative and Afro-American history, internationally celebrated composer, performer, saxophonist and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts creates a continuous work of 21st century freedom music. Andean flutist/vocalist Flavia Huarachi and Baltic contrabassist Aurelijus Užameckis will play the opening act as a duo.

Matana Roberts (they/them) is an internationally celebrated composer, performer, band leader, saxophonist, sound experimentalist, and mixed-media practitioner. Working across many contexts and mediums, including improvisation, music composition, visual art, dance, poetry, and theatre, Roberts is perhaps best known for their acclaimed Coin Coin project – a multi-chapter work of ‘panoramic sound quilting’ mixed media performance work, that aims to expose the mystical roots and intuitive traditions of American creative expression, while maintaining a deep and substantive engagement with narrative, history, community and political expression within sonic structures.

Matana Roberts has been called “a major talent” (The Wire) and “the spokesperson for a new, politically conscious and refractory Jazz scene” (Jazzthetik). Their Coin Coin body of work has been widely and highly praised for its stylistic innovations and narrative power.

Previous live performances, both ensemble and solo, across the global contemporary music spectrum, have been rapturously received. These include Big Ears in Tennessee, USA, which Rolling Stone described as “a jazz show that felt like a noise show”, a “deeply moving” (The Quietus) performance at Unsound in Krakow, PL, a show at Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, USA which The Boston Globe deemed “soul-baring and participatory”, Donaufestival in Donau, Austria, and Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, NL, where Matana was a guest in 2021.

Said of Matana Roberts:

“Roberts isn’t just a storyteller, musician, ethnographer, historian, bandleader, arranger, improviser, or activist. They play all of those roles, yes; collectively, they power one of the most provocative ongoing bodies of work by any American musician” – Pitchfork

“One can only assume that when the 12-album cycle is completed, it will be regarded as a singular masterpiece of twenty-first century sonic and narrative art.” – The Quietus

Flavia Huarachi & Aurelijus Užameckis
Andean flute player / singer Flavia Huarachi and baltic contrabass player
Aurelijus Užameckis, combine the folklore of their diverse roots in a duo,
knitting together ancient and modern expressions, with stories of origin and
identity.

Through their debut album “Huellas” – “Footprints”, they invite the listener
to travel across the andean landscape through songs in aymara and spanish
languages, narrating their encounters with the time of Amaypacha – the time
to connect with one’s ancestors and reconcile with the past.