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 solidarity 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 – as a purely vocal soundscape. The title literally means ‘meaningless struggle’ and reflects Kancheli’s melancholic view of the world: a protest against cruelty and violence, but also an ode to the strength of the human spirit. The saxophone quartet weaves itself like a gentle embrace around the choir’s plea – a musical journey 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, rather than 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.