VULTURES

“We all face the same terror, the wound of mortality, the worm at the core of existence.” These words by psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom draw inspiration from Ernest Becker’s groundbreaking book The Denial of Death (1973) and form the undertone of VULTURES, a new work composed by British-Chinese composer Jamie Man 文珮玲 on commission from BL!NDMAN.

Awareness of death is what connects us as human beings, yet it is also something we dare not confront. We prefer to avoid it, shrouding it in a taboo. In doing so, we increasingly deny what we are in essence: mortal, vulnerable creatures.

In VULTURES, Jamie Man places life and death together on stage in the form of an auditory ritual, brought to life through drone speakers, vocal mantras, field recordings, animal sounds, saxophones, and electronics.

Inspired by ancient Tibetan practices, she stages a musical sky burial, a type of post-mortem ritual in which the deceased are given to vultures. The dead become sustenance for the living, and their souls live on in the vultures ascending to the sky. Yet the vultures required for sky burials are critically endangered. These Dakinis—Tibetan angels who carry the soul to the heavens to await reincarnation—are themselves in transition towards death due to mass extinction.

Jamie Man and BL!NDMAN bring the vulnerability of both humans and animals together on stage in the form of a musical meditation, symbolising the fragile connection between ourselves, death, and the surrounding natural world. The current crisis facing our planet strongly permeates the work. In reflecting on biodiversity loss, natural disasters, increasing gender inequality, war, and migration issues, the recognition of fragility is essential. By presenting drones—which strongly evoke associations with war—as vultures within a musical context, Jamie Man and BL!NDMAN challenge our perception of decay and mortality. They draw inspiration from socially critical texts, including those by science philosopher Donna Haraway and queer activist/writer Hélène Giannecchini.

VULTURES is a staging of a musical sky burial, dedicated to the humans and animals who have lost their lives in today’s wars, climate disasters, and asylum crises. It produces a chilling, polyphonic tableau that reminds us of our own mortality, mirrored by feathered scavengers from the Old World.