Canticum Novum

Busy thinking that they are the centre of the world, Europeans find it hard to imagine that, until the 17th century, their economy beat to the rhythm of a lung that was China, whose riches and inventions, from silk to the compass, reached them through a capillary network of roads and passages grouped under the name, evocative of exoticism and the scents of the Orient, of the Silk Road. From Chang'an to Antioch in Syria, Constantinople, Venice and Spain, these routes carried goods and ideas, explorers and missionaries, techniques and spiritualities in both directions, creating unique conditions for exchange, syncretism and enrichment.

In its invitation to a musical journey, Shiruku draws on key locations in this thousand-year chain of encounters: 13th-century Spain, home to the three religions of the poet-king Alfonso X the Wise; 16th-century Japan, mission land of the Navarrese Jesuit Saint Francis Xavier; Constantinople on the Bosphorus, the eternal capital of the Byzantine, Persian and Turkish legacies and their transmission to a fascinated West.

Cast - 14 musicians

Barbara Kusa, Emmanuel Bardon, vocals
Valérie Dulac, Emmanuelle Guigues, viols
Aliocha Regnard, nyckelharpa
Philippe Roche, oud
Spyros Halaris, kanun & lute
Marine Sablonnière, recorders
Léa Maquart, kaval & ney flutes
Henri-Charles Caget, Ismaïl Mesbahi, percussion

With special guest appearances by:
Akihito Obama - Shakuhachi
Yutaka Oyama - Tsugaru-Shamisen
Tsugumi Yamamoto - Koto