The poet Yves Bonnefoy refers to “sound which unites when words divide". In this love affair between Mieko Miyazaki, a Japanese musician who, with the help of her koto, has been delving into the unexplored territories of emotion’s infinite world over the past three decades, and the Yako Quartet, a young and passionate ensemble who sustain from their solid French classical training an insatiable appetite for exploration and discovery, in which language is not the central element.

These five musicians have different mother tongues, which initially created a barrier – but music provided the key to quickly overcoming this hurdle, thus taking the idea of "cross-breeding" back to its original meaning: a fruitful union which creates real richness. As in a game of cards, the hand dealt to each member of the quintet pushes against rigid stagnation, and this musical creation is the result.

In the pentatonic mode, in which the koto is traditionally played, only subtle variations exist. However, melodies, rhythms, and harmonic flavors permeate the quartet’s lines, disturbing their classical order. The result is a lively succession of unexpected layers of sound in the service of a discourse that is sometimes furious, sometimes dreamy, but always resolutely optimistic.