To be seduced by something so repellant and to become aware of it, and to come again and again under its sway is a powerful injunction: injustice sometimes seduces. Your body ignores your revulsion to the matter, and is carried along in the beauty of the melody. I defy you not to sing or move with it, even after you’ve realised that you’re listening to a slave auction. It’s the most consistent track on the album, and, harmonically, the warmest, a gently swinging choral spiritual. In both cases, these changes all happen inside two minutes.įor all the sharp turns of most of the album, its cold heart is the track Libation for Mr Brown: Bid ’Em In.
#Gens de couleurs free
The next track, Song for Eulalie, follows Pov Piti without a break, the dirge-like strings at the close broken by boppy big band-style piano and drums, which are slowly overtaken by wild, free interjections, before it’s all swept aside by softly strained electric guitars. In the second track, Pov Piti, gentle, modal chords are interrupted by strangled, guttural vocalisations that coalesce in primal screams before settling back to cool urban melodies. From the alarming opening solo, the album swings wildly between moods and styles, tracks bleeding freely into one another. If the destination is peaceful, the journey is anything but. There are other character moments in the album, but this, recorded shortly after her mother’s passing, is the most personal. It’s a quiet moment of true catharsis, peaceful and unashamedly familial. Written for Roberts’ mother, it’s a touching tribute, as cool, clean, and clear as fresh water. In large part, that’s down to the last track, How Much Would You Cost. I’ve listened to the album four times in the six weeks since I bought it. About halfway through, I worried it would be one of these experiences. Saxophonist and composer Matana Roberts’ album, COIN COIN Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres is the first in an ambitious twelve-part work-in-progress exploring history and memory. Think of films like Grave of the Fireflies or Requiem for a Dream, or music like Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, or books like From Hell. There’s a particular kind of artistic experience that can leave the audience so profoundly affected that they’re reluctant to undergo it again.
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