MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY JAYNE JONES A NEW LIVE COLLABORATION & UK TOUR IN MAY
THIS TOUR MARKS THE FIRST IN A SERIES COMMISSIONED BY OUTLANDS: THE NEW NATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC TOURING NETWORK
OUTLANDS TOURS TO FOLLOW THIS YEAR: JUNE: YUNOHANA VARIATIONS: ROBERT AIKI AUBREY LOWE (LICHENS), SUSIE IBARRA & YOSHIMIO (BOREDOMS, OOIOO) NOVEMBER: RASTER NOTON VS DRIFT
The internationally renowned US composer, saxophonist, mixed-media practitioner, and sonic voyager Matana Roberts (perhaps best known for her acclaimed Coin Coin project, ongoing and unfolding via Constellation Records) and British sound artist/improviser Kelly Jayne Jones, have announced a new live collaboration, the first in a series of special live shows programmed by OUTLANDS, a new national experimental music touring network.
Roberts and Jones are two artists from disparate backgrounds, finding affinity in practices charged by fiercely personal philosophies on sound. Both artists embrace improvisation, resist accepted narratives of sound, are community-minded and believe in democratic, shared, free-music making that erodes barriers. In other words, they perfectly embody what OUTLANDS is striving for – more info and dates below.
Together, the artists will weave their own approaches into live collaborative works informed by deeply expressive playing, tactile electro-acoustic interplay and a broader shared politics of resistance/defiance. Produced by Qu Junktions and taking place in May 2018, after being developed and premiered in residency at Bristol’s Cube Cinema,this marks the first time Matana Roberts shall tour the UK on this scale, reaching locations she has never performed before. As part of the OUTLANDS initiative, this tour, and subsequent ones, will feature an interconnected engagement programme that will shine a light on the intriguing artistic processes and personalities involved in adventurous music forms, as well encouraging new audiences to experience this art form. In this case, Kelly Jayne Jones shall lead a series of group workshop sessions that explore improvisation as a means of building community, exploring mindfulness and enabling political expression (full details to follow).
MATANA ROBERTS & KELLY JAYNE JONES TOUR DATES MAY 2018
Fri 4th May Bristol, Cube Cinema
Weds 9th May London, Ghost Notes
Thu 10th May Bexhill, De La Warr Pavilion
Fri 11th May Cambridge, St Barnabas Church
Sat 12th May Milton Keynes, MK Gallery
Thu 17th May Plymouth, The House, Peninsula Arts, University ofPlymouth
Fri 18th May Birmingham, Centrala Gallery
Sat 19th May Manchester, The Portico
Sun 20th May Bradford, Fuse Art Space
Tour commissioned by OUTLANDS, produced by Qu Junktions and supported by Arts Council England and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Ticket prices shall be capped for all shows in the spirit of ensuring the shows are widely accessible, and can be purchased via the OUTLANDS website.
ARTIST & PARTNER QUOTES
“The tour will be the fruits of an encounter between the two artists last year, when Matana played a show with Kelly as part of a short run of UK dates in DIY/experimental contexts: they spoke at length afterwards and the seeds were sown for a collaboration exploring their mutual tastes for improvisation in a range of musical modes, rich live wind instrumentation in dialogue with subtle electro-acoustic dreamworlds, and the broader common theme of sound as a tool with which to interrupt familiar and obsolete narratives, musical, cultural, political or otherwise. The tour will see them explore these meeting points almost in real time, their work together breathing and evolving over the course of the shows.” – John Stevens, Qu Junktions
“At my artistic core, I am firmly dedicated to 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. In my ideal world the idea of ‘difference’, is an illusion designed only for the purpose of modern economic division and elitist intellectual hierarchy. Through my life’s work, I stand creatively in defiance.” – Matana Roberts
ABOUT OUTLANDS
OUTLANDS has grown out of a motivation to pool resources, build audiences, and support diverse, high-quality music, and the organisations that strive to promote it across the regions of the UK.
Initially spanning two years, the OUTLANDS programme includes six flagship tours (three per year), each showcasing a new work as commissioned by one of the ten core partner organisations, across eight regions that comprise the network. The partners forming the foundation of the OUTLANDS network, as revealed in 2017, include a variety of multidisciplinary curators, and non-profit, contemporary public spaces, including a Grade I listed building. These are as follows; Qu Junktions/Al Cameron, Bristol, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, Cambridge Junction, Cambridge, KARST, Plymouth, The House, Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, Supersonic, Birmingham, Fat Out, Salford, and Fuse Art Space, Bradford.
Following this first tour, in June, Supersonic Birmingham will present a collaboration between three improvisational luminaries performing live together; multi-instrumentalist YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO, SAICOBAB), avant-garde percussionist Susie Ibarra, and artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Lichens) called Yunohana Variations. Rounding off the first year’s programme is a production curated by Fuse in November, combining the forces of legendary German electronic label Raster Noton and DRIFT animating a sound-activated installation. More details on these to be revealed over the coming months.
Hashtag: #OutlandsMusic