The Philip Glass ensemble - Philip Glass - Godfrey Reggio — Powaqqatsi

Powaqqatsi, from the Hopi language meaning “a way of life that consumes other lives,” is the second chapter of the Qatsi trilogy created by Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass. Completed in 1988, immediately after Koyaanisqatsi, the film continues Reggio’s reflection on the relationship between humanity, development, and global transformation, shifting the focus toward the Global South and the tensions between traditional cultures and modernisation. The music is not a mere accompaniment to the images: it sustains them, moves through them, and transforms them. The work marks a significant step in Glass’s artistic evolution: alongside the hypnotic, modular structure that characterises his language, there is an expansion of timbral and rhythmic complexity, with more layered orchestral colours and the opening to musical influences drawn from non-Western traditions. Never before performed in Rome, Powaqqatsi is presented by the Philip Glass Ensemble on the occasion of the 40th edition of the Romaeuropa Festival, restoring the work to its original dimension as a total experience, where orchestra and images breathe together, bringing back to the centre one of the most emblematic chapters of Glass’s sonic universe.