Walter Zanetti / Masaru Hatanaka

Cantos Yoruba de Cuba is a remarkable exploration of Afro-Cuban sacred music translated through the intimate timbre of the classical guitar. Drawing on compositions by the Cuban guitarists and composers José Ángel Navarro and Héctor Angulo, Walter Zanetti recreates the spiritual essence of the batá chants of Santería, the Afro-Cuban syncretic religion. His arrangements preserve the ritual significance of the original batá rhythms while revealing new harmonic and melodic possibilities within these ancient chants.

El Decamerón Negro, based on a collection of African folktales gathered by the German anthropologist Leo Frobenius in the early twentieth century, is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of the classical guitar repertoire. Composed by Leo Brouwer, Cuba's foremost composer, conductor and an outstanding guitarist in his own right, now aged 87, El Decamerón Negro weaves together folk and art music, rhythmic patterns, dances and ritual chants rooted in Afro-Cuban traditions with the experimental language of the musical avant-garde.

Masaru Hatanaka, from Tokyo's legendary listening bar Nightingale, curates a programme of music and video in the Sale d'Armi at the Arsenale, where Origine, a space dedicated to deep listening, encounter and exchange, will be installed.