Calendar

News

15-06-2021:

Release documentary PAST >| ORALE


As an introduction to the performance PAST >I ORALE Zefiro Torna asked film maker Mathias Ruelle to create a short documentary. Through the eyes of five characters, this film highlights a few elementary parts from which the performance originated. The music of PAST >I ORALE - a wonderful mix of Beethoven, sound art and alternative pop - resonates as a soundtrack.

> Watch the documentary here (from June 15th until July 13th)

27-05-2021:

CD release Llibre Vermell


'A summer evening in Catalonia, 1399. A group of pilgrims are sitting next to the wall of the abbey church of Montserrat. They have come in search of forgiveness, purification, a fresh start.' Zefiro Torna and Psallentes re-opened this famous "Llibre Vermell de Montserrat". You can find our intimate version of the pilgrim songs on our newest CD, out now on the label Le Bricoleur. Get your copy here, it's the ideal soundtrack for a relaxing summer evening.

11-03-2021:

BALSAM on Podium 19


Tune in to Podium 19, a new tv-channel for culture, on Sunday 21 March at 6pm for BALSAM, and let yourself be carried away by the enchanting music and images of the alchemistic concert by Zefiro Torna and Laika. Afterwards you can watch the show for another month on VRTnu.

Of course we look forward to welcome you live again into this magic laboratory. We are planning a long tour in Belgium and abroad, which we hope to start in June.

11-12-2020:

Music for the Christmas Season


Tired of yet another version of Jingle Bells or All I Want for Christmas? Maybe you'll like our 'Special Seasonal Mix' on Spotify, a selection of songs to spice up this cold December month.

Even though we celebrate Christmas a little differently this year, presents are always nice to receive and to give. Balsam's music literally works as a balm to many souls in these times, an ideal gift for under the Christmas tree. Thanks to a stock sale of the Homerecords label, you can buy the Scattered Rhymes CD with the Frank Vaganée Trio at a discount price of 5 euros. For a swinging start of 2021!

15-09-2020:

Fall 2020: Balsam and two premieres


We are all in need of cultural activities after the past months. It's something we noticed from the many moved reactions after playing Balsam at the Zomer van Antwerpen in July. The press has repeatedly called the performance "a balm for the soul." This autumn we bring you extra oxygen for the soul with the reprise of Balsam in Rotterdam and Heerlen.

On October 14, Zefiro Torna and the contemporary French Ensemble Variances will unite music from the 14th to the 21st centuries during the premiere of BACHC®AB in deSingel. And a month later we'll launch you 'im glückliche Fahrt' into a new time and space with the long-awaited premiere of PAST | ORALE: BTHVN transhumanized during the Lunalia festival. Looking forward to this special reunion!

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BACHC®AB

— riddles in music & visual art (2020)

ZEFIRO TORNA - Ensemble Variances - AMVK

Taking J.S. Bach’s Musikalisches Opfer as a starting point, ZEFIRO TORNA, ENSEMBLE VARIANCES (FR) and visual artist Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven (AMVK) join forces in an exceptional program around the symbol of the retrograde. Underneath a purely technical charm seems to lie hidden a symbolic purpose. Maybe it is an attempt to control the relentlessly ongoing concept of time? Is it the expression of a negative world view: a waning society in full regression? Or could it be a magical intervention: is it actually possible to rewind an event and undo it by chanting or playing backwards? Or can we, this way, connect the end with the beginning, the alpha with the omega?

Throughout music history, musical puzzles and chanting backwards have been a returning particularity. Emblematic scores in the shape of a lobster carrying the world on its back (Cancer Cancrizans), circular compositions that depict the circle of life or music relating to the symbol of the labyrinth or of self-sacrifice form the common thread through the BACHC®AB programme. The audience travels from the 14th-century song En la maison Dedalus or the 15th-century Tout par compas suy composés, to the ritual dances of the 20th and 21st centuries with George Crumb and Thierry Pécou, whose Miraris Mundum received its world premiere. Heinz Holliger explores the physical limits of the individual performer while Louis Andriessen’s Inanna’s Descent recounts the journey of the mythological Sumerian goddess to the underworld. The enigmatic canons from Bach’s Musikalisches Opfer connect old and new.

A video artwork by Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven reinforces the ritualistic character of this concert.

Zefiro Torna

  • Annelies Van Gramberen vocals
  • Kristien Ceuppens oboe, cor anglais
  • Dimos De Beun recorder, clavicymbalum
  • Liam Fennelly viola da gamba, fiddle
  • Jurgen De bruyn mandolin, archlute


Jurgen De bruyn concept, artistic direction
Dr. Prof. Katelijne Schiltz musicological research
Anne-mie Van Kerckhoven visual art
Gert Aertsen video technique

Ensemble Variances (FR)

  • Carjez Gerretsen (bass) clarinet
  • Thierry Pécou or Marie Vermeulin piano
  • Elisa Humanes, David Joignaux, Arnaud Lassus percussion
  • Thierry Pécou artistic direction of Ensemble Variances

In coproduction with DE SINGEL, Antwerp and with the support of The Flemish Community and the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter