spiral resonance: a study in the abstract

Matana Roberts 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 theater, 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. 

Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and poet based in Los Angeles. Over the last decade, he has established himself as one of the premier improvising musicians in the city, playing solo and in numerous collaborative projects. He has presented work and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Broad Museum, and the Getty. He’s been commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and has toured around the world in various solo and band configurations, including The Armed and contemporary classical ensemble Wild Up.
 

Ryan Sawyer is a NYC- based percussionist, composer, academic, and visual artist. He has performed, recorded, and toured with countless bands and musicians. Sawyer’s unique approach to improvisation and composition includes free-form shepherding of sound through drums and voice. After years of improvisation and sideman work, Sawyer has dedicated his focus and practice to healing through sound and brings this mindset to every opportunity he has to make music. Presently, he is concentrating on a new piece for a small orchestra and maracas called Ryan Sawyer’s Shaker Ensemble, with a release of a live record on Lobby Art Editions.

Judith Berkson is a composer, vocalist, and pianist; as well as Faculty member at in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts. Her research centers around tuning and microtonality as they relate to memory and perception, exploring the small spaces between similarity and difference. She cites influences ranging from cantorial chant to jazz standards, and lieder from composers such as Schubert and Schumann. Her music offers a contemplative, spare space for the reworking of traditional structures within contemporary sonic modes and techniques. Collaborations have included work with Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson, Vijay Iyer, Alvin Lucier, Mivos Quartet, Wet Ink and Yarn/Wire. Recordings on ECM Records, Fresh Sound, Pi, and Notice Recordings. Film music presented at Venice Biennale, SXSW and Outfest LA. Festival appearances: Angel City Jazz Festival, Picasso Museum Malaga, National Sawdust, Women from Space Festival and Bang on a Can.

Kyp Malone is a GRAMMY-nominated singer and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with bands including TV On The Radio, Iran, Rain Machine, and Ice Balloons. He has previously worked with Matana Roberts as producer and synthesizer player for their 2023 album Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden.