At the heart of this programme, Thierry Pécou's string quartet with fixed sounds, Les rameurs obscurs de la barque de Rê (The Dark Rowers of Ra's Boat), is an imaginary journey through the many facets of Egypt and the city of Cairo. Blurring the lines between the present day and antiquity, the composer drew inspiration from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which recounts the mysterious nocturnal journey of the sun god Rê, who navigates his boat between life and death, towards a new cycle of life.

In resonance with this musical and poetic journey, existential questions and reminiscences of ancient civilisations emerge from Philip Glass's String Quartet No. 2, inspired by Samuel Beckett's short story Company.