Can a lullaby lead to enlightenment? It might, if it takes the shape  of a spiral: the Buddhist symbol of the cyclical development of  the universe and every being that inhabits it. In the works of  Chinary Ung—the leading figure of new Khmer music—this  archetype is realised through an unending sequence of variations  on a limited body of source material. Spiral XI, with its suggestive  subtitle Mother and Child, speaks to the listener on three levels  at once: the modern and virtuosic level, woven from the subtle  microtonal and articulatory ornaments of the viola part; the folk  lullaby that counterpoints it, as if in a dream; and, resonating  through both audible layers, the idealised sound culture of  Indochinese Buddhism. Ung’s meditative work will be preceded  by one of the brilliant etudes of Garth Knox, the man responsible  for the postmodern awakening of the viola.