MMLAB: musical performance: Sayonakidori (Lith. Nightingale) (director and composer Agnė Matulevičiūtė)

ABOUT

uka-uka: the sound of being constantly slightly wrong

uwaa: the sound of a feeling that cannot be expressed in words

boro-boro: the sound of everything around falling apart*

*onomatopoeia from Polly Barton's book "Fifty sounds"

Sayonakidori (Japanese for nightingale) – a landscape of onomatopoeia, revealing how Japanese onomatopoeia (sound equivalents of objects or phenomena) allow for the expression of sounds through words.

Composer and director of the piece Agnė Matulevičiūtė visited Nijō Castle during her trips to Japan, wanting to explore the architecture of this unique structure and its floors, which emit sounds similar to birds' voices. The "nightingale floors" are spoken of as a myth – they could have been a security system to protect against intruders, or simply an unintentional architectural flaw. The artist is interested in the fact that this myth is still being recorded and told by someone. Such duality opens up particularly broad and interesting contexts and themes for the creation of the performance. Walking on the "nightingale floors" inspired the artist to create a sound composition for the building, playing it like a musical instrument, playing with what is invisible but only audible, and vice versa. This is a work combining music and dance, in which the performers themselves will shape the sound fabric using their bodies and voices.

The themes of the musical performance arise from observing Japanese culture from a distance and its interpretation through European eyes: security, fear of the other, fragments of ghost culture, and explorations of the phenomenon of uncanniness. The sound technology of the nightingale corridor, used for protection, inspires themes of attack, defense, and privacy. Security here is both an internal state and a fear of the world's insecurity.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Author of the idea, director and composer: Agnė Matulevičiūtė

Choreographer: Pawel Sakowicz (Poland)

Scenographer and lighting designer: Julius Kuršis

Costume designer: Elena Marija Veleckaitė

Sound engineer: Ignas Juzokas

Performers: Tomoo Nagai (Japan), Clara Giambino (France), Greta Grinevičiūtė, Ugnė Kavaliauskaitė, Justina Mykolaitytė, Alvydė Pikturnaitė, Laurynas Jurgelis, Gediminas Rimeika, Agnė Matulevičiūtė

Producer: Rusnė Kregždaitė

Executive producer: Greta Senkutė

Head of communications: Rasa Kregždaitė

Visual photographer: Vismantė Ruzgaitė

Visual designer: Sofija Laurušonytė

Technical director: Vladislav Bajaznyj

PARTNERS:

Trakų Vokė Manor Homestead, Polish Institute in Vilnius, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Japan, MiSHO residency (Fujino, Japan), Všį "Krantas", Lithuanian Composers' Union, EU Delegation to Japan, Embassy of Japan in Lithuania, bookstore chain "VAGA", InlanDimensions

Project funded by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, EU Japan fest