Songs and Tales
of Mount Degelen
Upcoming in Spring 2027
Songs and Tales of Mount Degelen is a performance-device for entering and navigating the sonic spectrum of Atomic Inhumanity—the devastating legacy of forty years of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan.
At the core of the project is the New-Genius Epic—a sonic composition in which the magical sound of live biz keste embroidery stitches together songs, stories and tales that enfold the history of Mount Degelen across space and time—a mountain at the very centre of the Semipalatinsk Test Site, where 215 underground nuclear explosions were conducted.
Songs and Tales of Mount Degelen is part of ORTA’s long-term Planetary Program The Great Atomic Bombreflector, which seeks to transform the Atomic Inhumanity of nuclear testing into an energy for the eradication of War.
Together with an international team of musicians, artists, and architects, ORTA uses its signature Method of New Genius Composition to expand the New-Genius Epic into a larger composition of New-Genius Movement, Instrument-Making, Costume, and Architecture.