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22-03-2023:

L’ALQUIMISTA in Barcelona

Next week we will begin the rehearsals for music theater performance L'ALQUIMISTA in Barcelona, at the Teatro Nacional de Catalunya. Michael De Cock created and directs a theatre adaptation of the book The Abyss by Belgian writer Marguerite Yourcenar. Lutenist Jurgen De bruyn joins the stage and, together with composer Alain Franco, provides the soundtrack for the story, which is set in 16th-century Europe with a focus on the last years of the Bruges doctor and alchemist Zeno and on universal themes of humanity and freedom in turbulent times.

The premiere will take place on the 11th of May 2023. The tickets are on sale vie TNC.

15-11-2022:

The Mass Man in Amsterdam

De Theaterkrant describes The Mass Man as "intriguing musical meditation on mass, power and manipulation".
The full review is available on the website.

11-08-2022:

MAfestival - PREMIERE

We had the pleasure of showing THE MASS MAN to a sold out audience in Concertgebouw Brugge. Prior to the performance, Muziektheater Transparant director Wouter Van Looy and artistic director of Zefiro Torna Jurgen De bruyn shared their thoughts with the audience. They explained how Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti and his masterly book on the themes of mass and power, medieval crusader songs and film images by Wim Catrysse form the raw material for a gripping music theatre performance.

Theatre critic Johan Thielemans wrote an engaging review.

20-05-2022:

CD release Time Crawls

The CD TIME CRAWLS is out on the label HOMERECORDS.BE and also available on our webshop (> CD).

Zefiro Torna takes us into a timeless universe with a reinterpretation of the 17th century broken consort music. Melodies intuitively created by flute player Jowan Merckx received a new arrangement for flute, violin, viola da gamba, violone, harp and lute by composers Marnix De Cat and Martin Valcke. The new written music bears traces of baroque and traditional music from all over Europe. The music, which is sometime melancholic, sometimes nimble and festive, fascinates by its ingeniously crafted texture and invites to dance.

30-08-2021:

BALSAM on tour


This autumn, the alchemistic laboratory BALSAM with Laika, Theatre of the Senses will be on tour again. After two series of performances at the Boulevard Festival in Den Bosch and Cultura Nova in Heerlen in August, the team is ready for it! Prepare yourself for a bewitching ritual in which music, scents and flavours immerse you in the shimmering world of alchemy. Besides the Greenwich+Docks International Festival in London and a tour to Portugal and France, BALSAM also passes by a number of Belgian venues.

--> Take a look in the agenda for all dates

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PAST >| ORALE

— BTHVN transhumanised (2020)

ZEFIRO TORNA - SEADS network

What would happen if there were a United Organization of Organisms, called UOO (uh-oh)
where each species gets one vote?
Would mankind be voted off the planet?
Would we be rejected by the biosphere as a virulent organism?
We are nature,
we are not separate from it
It's a natural gift we have
It is just
Recalling it
It is just
Reclaiming it
It is just
Re-enchanting it

(Text by Birsen Uçar for PAST >| ORALE)

The transdisciplinary performance PAST >I ORALE, a collaboration between Zefiro Torna and SEADS Network, links Beethoven to the theme of nature versus man, society, and science. Philosophical common tread is the optimism of progress as reflected in his allegorical ballet Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. Here, Beethoven presents a titan who brings fire to earth and thus frees man from the dictates of the gods, through science, art, and a new morality.


A similar optimism of progress characterises the DNA of the international transdisciplinary network of artists, scientists, engineers, and activists: SEADS. This new self-confident generation emphasises an increasing psychological connection of all people, supported by advanced means of communication and a further computerisation of society.

PAST >I ORALE is designed as a utopian ecosystem in which humans, micro-organisms and technology enter a symbiotic relationship. Musical motifs from Beethoven's famous 6th ‘Pastoral’ Symphony form the building blocks of new compositions. Songs from the cycle An die ferne Geliebte or fragments from the 5th Cello Sonata mutate and are accompanied by ambient music, sound art, spoken word, and alternative pop music.

Sound shapes an ecology of microscopic life forms: sound frequencies and musical patterns influence the conditions in which this living matter finds itself. This hidden world becomes visible to the audience and performers through microscopic image capture and projection. The result is an eccentric biotope in which hybrid sounds transport the listener/ observer 'im glückliche Fahrt' to a new time and space.

Zefiro Torna

  • Birsen Uçar (Hydrogen Sea) singer/performer
  • Mathis Van Cleynenbreugel vocals, French horn
  • Jasmijn Lootens cello, electronics
  • Pak Yan Lau toy piano, electronics, trash synths
  • Frederik Croene piano démécanisé
  • Jurgen De bruyn romantic guitar, mandolin, lute, electronics

  • Roel Das sound engineer
  • Jean-Lou Caglar light design
  • Jurgen De bruyn concept, musical direction

SEADS network

  • Pieter Steyaert installation, visuals

BTHVN ‘shards’ | new music based on fragments from Symphony n° 6 in F major ‘Pastoral’, song cycle ‘An die ferne Geliebte’, ‘Cello Sonata n° 5’ and ‘Meeresstille’ – arrangements of Hydrogen Sea songs

In coproduction with Concertgebouw Brugge, LUNALIA, CC Strombeek, GC De Muze

In cooperation with Meise Botanic Garden

With special thanks to Kunstencantrum nona, STUK, DE MAAN