Happy New Year! "Palimpsesto" is on the longlist 01/2015 of the German Record Critics' Prize. The Zafraan Ensemble's debut release has been available since October 2014 in the Testklang online shop and in specialist retailers via Harmonia Mundi.
Palimpsesto includes five outstanding new recordings of works by contemporary Spanish composers Hèctor Parra, Elena Mendoza, Alberto Posadas and Juan María Cué, as well as a Renaissance piece by Luis de Narváez, re-arranged by Miguel Pérez Iñesta.
The title Palimpsesto is derived from the ancient and medieval context of the word, which refers to the shimmering through of old, erased text levels on a newly written sheet of parchment. Similarly, the Zafraan Ensemble, led by Manuel Nawri, examines the works of the Spanish avant-gardists for the influences of their tradition and opens up an excitingly complex sound world with superior virtuosity.
Other components of Palimpsesto are five poems, including a new creation by the poet José Antonio Rodriguez Alva and a music video by Martin Maier for Hèctor Parra’s Ciel Rouillé. The five art objects by the painter Luis Ángel Prestell, which were created based on the five pieces of music, serve as the source material for Fabian Lefelmann’s design.
The longlist 01/2015 from the German Record Critics’ Prize can be viewed at www.schall Plattenkritik.de/news. More information about Palimpsesto can be found here .
