Aedes has invited martial artist and Nō actor Master Masato Matsuura to join them in creating a new programme which brings together two different thousand-year-old traditions through singing, drama, arms and dance.

The programme revolves around choral masterpieces whose subject is the duality of human nature and the harmonious opposition which governs the  unity of the world : works such as Arnold Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden, a call for peace where hope and uncertainty are mingled ; and the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis’s Curse Upon Iron, a kind of incantation conceived as an allegory of the evils of war. Masato Matsuura deploys the wide range of his martial and dramatic expression in response to these works, interweaving Nō theatre and Utai chant with ancestral martial art.

The voices of the choir mingle with the sublime performance of the Nō actor as he uses the evocative power of traditional Japanese drama to conjure up imaginary or real characters as poetical fiction. Masato Matsuura’s voice rises from the depths, vibrating with the fluctuating rhythm of Utai chant.

Heart and body converse, sing and dance as they search for balance and unity between inwardness and exuberance. This is particularly vivid in the world premiere of Aurélien Dumont’s new work for Utai singer, choir, string bass and percussion.