Author: Michael Vetter (BRD 1943)
Genre: Audio Art
Production: DLR 2003
Director: Götz Naleppa
Length: 45 min.

Contributors:
Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikeprelevic

Content:
"Okyo" is the name of the prayer texts that Zen monks in the Far East recite as chants. They are sung on one note in order to visualise them beyond all emotion. Here, the okyo is understood primarily as a phonetic experience, a sound event that puts the understanding of the texts' content in the background. "For years, my okyo meditations consisted of improvisatory practice processes about the inner life of the sounds. Every day for many hours I observed the sound singing, how it went into itself and out of itself." (M. Vetter)
Traditional Zen music forms the starting point for this audio piece in which Michael Vetter and Natascha Nikeprelevic reinterpret the Okyos with the inclusion of instruments. In doing so, they demonstrate above all their great skill in making the overtones sound virtuosic.