Ensemble PHACE / Film

A two-part evening dedicated to the deep space of the female voice. The hour-long composition “FACE Dia.De” by Pierluigi Billone (*1960) is the latest result of a long-standing collaboration between the Italian composer and the Viennese ensemble PHACE. Billone's music can be understood as a journey between moments that are “ritually opened and closed again”. Each of these moments “carves” a space within the voice and the chant, says the composer. To call it a “cultic space” might go too far, but the intensity of Billone’s musical events, the strong physicality and corporeality of his scores and their specific flow of energy, create a primordial pull that carries ritualistic qualities. Part two of this evening presents a film by Belgian artist Myriam Van Imschoot. “Le Cadeau” recalls stories of migration, joy, assault and revolt, following the vocal practice of the “youyou” or “zagharit”, a shrill trill that is used by women in North-Africa and the “Middle East” to express joy and other intense emotions.