MARTIN PERNA
Martin Perna is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and conceptual utopian artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York and Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico. As a performer, he has performed on scores of recordings, from afrobeat, funk, dub, Latin rock, and hip-hop. In 1998 he founded Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, a twenty-plus member afrobeat/funk collective. The group has been credited largely with igniting the new afrobeat movement after the passing of its originator, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, in 1997. Antibalas has toured in over fifteen countries, including appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Roskilde (Denmark), Quart (Norway), WOMEX (Spain), Bonaroo (USA) and Coachella (USA), Brooklyn Museum of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco), PS1 (New York), and Rikers Island Prison (New York). Perna's Anitbalas has also facilitated discussions about the politics and traditions of afrobeat music at Yale University, New York University, McGill University, Concordia College, Haverford College, and Brooklyn Friends School. Other musical projects include his side project, Ocote Soul Sounds, plus collaborations with the groups TV on the Radio, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Apsci, Carlos Mena and Lazaro Galarraga. No Surrender, Cordero, Applied Science, Dr. Israel, Adrian Quesada, Roots Combination, and the Daktaris. He has contributed to the scores of Night Magic and The Devils Twilight with filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz.