The Renku challenge invites artists to collaborate and make new music inspired by a bi-weekly assigned poem which was too the result of a collaboration.

Haiku poetry has its roots in a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry called Renku, which consists of two different stanzas: the image developed in the first one (a three-line verse, the origin of haiku) is contrasted to (or augmented by) a related image in the final two-lines. The juxtaposition of the two stanzas produces more meaning than either part could by itself. These two sections are written by two different poets: hence the idea of adopting the concept behind renku poetry to create a new music project. Renku a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of Renga poetry.

To participate:

– Visit the blog dedicated to the Renku project and find the latest assigned poem

– Collaborate with one or more musicians, online or offline, and make music inspired by the bi-weekly assigned renku poem. A new poem is assigned every second Wednesday.

– Once your track is ready, you can submit it to Naviar’s Dropbox account using this link: all tracks submitted will be published on Naviar’s Audioboom page and on the blog post dedicated to the Renku challenge.

–  Include Renku (NUMBER OF THE CHALLENGE) in the title of your track.

– When you send your entry, upload a document in which all participants are credited and, if you wish, the composition’s process is explained.

If you wish your compositions to be included in Naviar’s podcasts, radio programs and monthly publications, please set the track as downloadable and allow others to remix it by using a Creative Commons License.

Every month Naviar will release a free album on Bandcamp with a selection of tracks submitted to the challenge.

Renku is a project run by Naviar Records. Sign up to the newsletter to stay up to date.