text: amao ori

For Beyond Silence, the Flemish Radio Choir and the Kebyar Saxophone Quartet juxtapose Pärt's Miserere with an intense plea for human connection by his contemporary Giya Kancheli (1935-2019).

In Amao Omi (2005), Giya Kancheli has the choir sing words chosen not for their meaning but for their sound - like a pure vocal soundscape. The title literally means 'senseless struggle', and reflects Kancheli's melancholic view of the world: a protest against cruelty and violence, but also an ode to the power of the human spirit. The saxophone quartet weaves like a soft envelope around the choir's entreaty - a musical movement from darkness to light, from despair to hope.

The sung text consists of a selection of Georgian words, mostly chosen in their basic form for their sound and singability, not for their meaning. They do not form a coherent narrative, but a soundscape full of emotion and colour, in which the human voice itself becomes the instrument that speaks beyond language.