Word
Not as self-assertion, but as a way to relate inner sound to the world.
Radiance — Northern Tales of the True History of the World
Song
Book II of the literary-philosophical cycle Radiance. A novel about sound that does not take power: about hearing, language, city, working stage and a song that does not become a performance number.
After Sampo, the question of abundance becomes the question of word: can language become not opinion, argument or self-expression, but a form of attunement?
Selected chapter
Chapter One. Ordinary Noise
Fragment from the first chapter
Warsaw met Ayla not with a sign, not with a vision, and not with any whisper from under the earth worthy of continuing an ancient prologue.
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Warsaw met her with an announcement in the train.
First came a thin click in the speaker; then a woman’s voice, too polite for six in the morning, reported something about the next station, a connection, caution when leaving and gratitude for the journey. The voice was flat, clean, with not the slightest desire to become fate. It was simply doing its work. There was a kind of honesty in that, almost severe.
Ayla sat by the window and watched the grey morning stretch beyond the glass.
The city had not fully woken yet, but it had already begun to make noise with such confidence as if it had never slept at all.
The selected fragment shows the entrance into the book: not a mystical sign, but a city, a speaker, morning and noise that suddenly stops being background.
About the book
for readers
Song continues the Radiance cycle not through solemn revelation, but through contemporary Warsaw, return, everyday noise, rehearsal, caution and an instrument that does not want to become a shrine.
This is a book about how sound passes through a person, a city, work, error, silence and another’s presence. Song here is not a concert and not a magical device. It is a question: what must change in a person for the word to become attunement rather than noise?
The book preserves the northern mythopoetic spine, but does not turn it into a postcard. The ancient image acts through the modern tissue of the city, through language, body, memory, instrument and pause.
Without spoilers
what the reader will encounter
Warsaw as a hearing space
The city in Song is not a background, but an environment: train, tram, announcement, wet asphalt, foreign speech and small noises that suddenly become significant.
Instrument without idol
Kantele and cimbalom do not become magical artefacts. They remain things that require hand, precision, responsibility and the right not to sound too early.
Ayla and return
Ayla does not return with a finished answer. She has to enter the city, work, relationships, tiredness and a hearing that cannot simply be turned off again.
Song before song
The book does not lead to an impressive performance number, but to a moment where sound appears carefully, almost dryly, without seizing power over people and space.
Artistic research frame
for foundations and partners
Song continues the method of Sampo through word, hearing and connection. It asks whether speech can become something more than opinion, argument or self-expression — whether language can become a form of attunement to the order of reality.
This is not a novel about music as decoration and not a mystical story about a miraculous sound. Artistic form researches how an ancient motif of song can act inside a contemporary European urban environment, where sound is bound to body, labour, attention, memory and responsibility.
Song here does not take power. It tests whether a human being is able to hear without possessing.
Themes
research nodes of the book
Hearing
The book asks what happens when the habitual background stops being background.
Language
Russian, Polish, English, city announcements and everyday phrases become different layers of access to reality.
Instrument
A thing sounds only when a human being does not hurry to make it a symbol of his own right.
Pause
Silence matters no less than sound: it keeps the moment from turning into a beautiful lie.
City
Warsaw is heard as a living space where order arises not from silence, but from many uncoordinated parts.
For whom
reader’s entrance
This book may speak to readers who need slow mythopoetic prose, a contemporary European setting, the theme of language and hearing, philosophical depth without a lecture, and music without decorative elevation.
Song does not require prior knowledge of northern epic. Something else matters more: the willingness to hear how an ancient image may appear not in costume, temple or legendary landscape, but in a train, theatre, room, tram, pause and one dry sound.
Language and publishing status
current map
RURussian version completed.
ENEnglish literary transcreation planned as the next stage.
PLPolish version in preparation.
FIFinnish version possible as a next partnership stage.
For foundations, publishers and cultural partners
points of collaboration
What already exists
- Completed Russian Book II of the Radiance cycle.
- Prepared visual package for Russian, English and Polish presentation.
- Connection with a long-term literary-philosophical cycle and practice-based research frame.
- Clear thematic connection with language, sound, urban environment, memory and cultural transmission.
What is possible
- Partnership around English, Polish and Finnish versions.
- Publishing, translation and editorial collaboration.
- Literary readings, public talks and presentations of artistic research through fiction.
- Cultural programmes at the intersection of literature, sound, language, theatre, city and northern mythopoetic material.
Place in the cycle
Radiance
Song is the second completed research node of Radiance. It continues Sampo: after the question of abundance and participation comes the question of word, hearing and attunement.
Further books unfold craft, threshold, trauma, return, birth, forest, measure and responsibility as the next nodes of the long-term cycle.
— mark of presence