REKA by YUVAL AVITAL
MASSIVE SONIC WORK FOR SIX TRADITIONAL SINGERS, TWO PERCUSSIONS AND A CROWD OF HUNDREDS OF VOICES
Yuval Avital presents REKA, commissioned by Warsaw Autumn Festival and co-produced by MITO-SettembreMusica, a large sound experiment that intends to involve the local public inviting them to participate in the creation of a fresco made up of hundreds of voices, coordinated on scene by two conductors, two percussionists and six extraordinary singers who represent a selection of the most unusual ancient vocal traditions in the world.
Following his previous three massive sonic creations (KARAGATAN for 100 gongs & bamboo [Philippines 2013]; GARON for 45 tubas, 6 percussions, choir, live electronics & 3 conductors [Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner closing event, Milan 2012]; Mise en Abîme for 34 accordions, soloists & crowd of 100 voices [RAI, Milan 2011]), REKA is a rare sonic experience including numerous performers : Six extraordinary traditional singers from rare and ancient vocal traditions, two contemporary classic percussion soloists playing gongs, plates and metals, a huge vocal “Crowd” - an anti-choir formed by a heterogeneous group of participants with no need of previous musical knowledge - that will be composed of the residents of the city in which performances will take place, guided by coded gestures of the conductor and a “user friendly” graphic & verbal score. The main component of this work is the VOICE - the most essential and ancient sonic tool of all.
In REKA the voice extends from techniques and aesthetics of millenary traditions, to shouts and whispers, from precise musical languages to complex sonic textures; uniting and overlapping parallel events until reaching an extreme weaved texture, a trembling background from which sonic messages are born in order to vanish again.
The vocal soloists of REKA are :
OMAR BANDINU (SARDINIA / ITALY) Canto bassu (guttural singing) of the Tenores tradition.
ENKHJARGAL ANDARVAANCHIG (MONGOLIA / GERMANY) Guttural and overtone singing of the nomadic Mongolian tradition.
SOFIA KKAIKOV (TAJIKISTAN / ISRAEL) Bukara Jewish tradition, Mugam epic singing.
YUSSUF JOE LEGWABE (SOUTH AFRICA / UK) Zulu tradition, guttural singing and click language.
SAINKHO NAMTCHYLAK (SIBERIA / AUSTRIA) Tuvan shamanic and popolar traditions - biphonic and throat singing.
LAMA SAMTEN YESHE RINPOCHE (TIBET / FRANCE) Tibetan Bön tradition.
