Terroir – Zafraan Ensemble

Genoël von Lilienstern and the Zafraan Ensemble invite you to immerse yourself in the Terroir sound monument. Experience a zoom into instrumental sounds between doom drone and xenharmonic moods.

Genoël von Lilienstern and the Zafraan Ensemble invite you to an immersion into the Terroir sound monument. Experience a zoom into instrumental sounds between doom drone and xenharmonic moods.
Genoël von Lilienstern has worked for several years on a series of pieces that focus particularly strongly on ‘oversized sounds’. The instrumental sound of the Zafraan Ensemble is monumentalised through transposition, distortion and spatialisation. Alternative, xenharmonic tuning systems, which divide the octave into sixteen instead of twelve notes, and the slow flow create ‘soft edges’.

Terroir is therefore about a condensed, immersive concert experience, especially of sounds that are not only articulated via the sense of hearing, but also trigger haptic and physical experiences through their electrified state. The French word ‘terroir’ literally translates as ‘region’. It also contains the word ‘terre’, the earth. It stands for the entirety of a local environment. An ambience that includes elements such as soil, climate and topography. However, the term was first used in the culinary world, where it is also understood as ‘the essence in the extreme’. An appreciation of the given resources and materials, without preconceived framing, in your face, ‘without sauce’. In this sense, the term is both earthy and transcendental, reflective and raw.