PdSK Longlist: Nomination for the best list 01/2017 from the German Record Critics’ Prize in the “Contemporary Music” category.
»Together with the SWR, the Zehntscheuer cultural association created the motto of the Day for New Music sound speech. […] The Zafraan Ensemble impressed with great sovereignty […] The music drew on full sound and achieved an orchestral effect. Titus Engel guided safely through the events. Here, too, there are powerful, dynamic turning points, sharp landmarks in time. Music like a scenic sequence.« (Frederick Straten)
»It was never a static performance, especially since the musicians moved between the audience and Chiharu Shiota’s installation. […] Towards the end, some visitors even dared to dance. Instead of a conventional performance of contemporary music, alif turned out to be an unforgettable experience – an ambitious project that this production has fully implemented.« (Tom Nys)
»The concert installation alif::split in the wall was also part of the strategy of countering the world’s speed with long events. […] Palestinian-Israeli composer Samir Odeh-Tamimi divided the musical period into three parts by having the Zafraan Ensemble play his powerful ensemble piece Alif at the beginning, middle and end. In between there were activities between the musicians, sometimes solos.« (Gisela Nauck)
»A new concert format was tried out in the Radialsystem under the title alif::split in the wall. A spatial installation by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, who designed the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale, was complemented by a musical performance. Like the bloodstream of a gigantic creature, illuminated tubes filled the space in which musicians and listeners could move freely. Samir Odeh-Tamimi’s orientalizing composition Alif, played by the Zafraan Ensemble, alternated with Stefan Goldmann’s live electronic techno composition. As contrasting as the musical languages were, both spoke directly to the audience without overwhelming them. Between the well-balanced alternations, Salome Kammer presided as a singing and dancing high priestess.« (Albrecht Dümling)
»Daigger has written a right-wing soundtrack for this dystopian view of our social reality, a rhythmically hammering music […] Durão opens up a whole stylistic panopticon in the second part, in which the jazz of the 1930s swings through, and sounds here and there stream in the distance. The Berlin Zafraan Ensemble brings all this to life in a fabulous and highly virtuosic manner.« (Verena Fischer-Zernin)
