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Music as a way of seeing the world

Zafraan Ensemble describes its work as a reflection of contemporary life. What does it mean to make music that engages with the world we inhabit today?

Zafraan Ensemble: For us, music is a way of reflecting the life, society and reality of the present in all their different facets. We observe, explore and process what surrounds us: people, events, nature, technologies, the things we take for granted and the absurdities of everyday life. Working together with other art forms allows us to approach these subjects from different perspectives and discover connections that might otherwise remain unheard.

Contemporary music can be a way of questioning how we perceive our surroundings. It can make familiar things seem strange, reveal unexpected relationships and open up new ways of thinking about the present.

From Baroque to rock

Your musical influences seem to resist any fixed boundaries. How would you describe the traditions and genres that shape your work?

Zafraan Ensemble: A little bit of everything, we’re limitless! From Baroque to rock. That openness is central to our approach. Rather than defining ourselves through a single genre or tradition, we are interested in the possibilities that emerge when different musical languages meet. Contemporary music offers a space in which sounds, techniques and ideas can be brought together in unexpected ways. Curiosity matters more to us than staying within established categories.

Seventeen years of curiosity

Zafraan has been exploring new musical possibilities for more than 17 years. What continues to drive this journey?

Zafraan Ensemble: We have spent more than 17 years exploring the possibilities of listening, thinking and acting in new ways. What keeps us going is the desire to continue discovering, questioning and experimenting together, always with passion and joy. For us, exploration is an ongoing process rather than a destination. Each project offers another opportunity to approach music from a different angle and to discover what becomes possible when we remain open to new ideas.

Entering the world of Iris ter Schiphorst

This year, EDEN CINEMA celebrates the work of Iris ter Schiphorst. What makes her artistic universe such a compelling focus for this programme?

Ter Schiphorst’s artistic trajectory offers a fascinating perspective on the boundaries between musical worlds. After classical piano training, she played electric bass in punk, new-wave and funk bands before finding her way into contemporary music through her own writing and encounters with composers and thinkers including Dieter Schnebel and Luigi Nono.

Her work is characterised by political awareness, poetic intensity, sensual sound and a willingness to challenge established forms. These qualities make her music particularly suited to a programme that seeks to explore the many ways contemporary music can communicate, question and transform.

With EDEN CINEMA, Zafraan Ensemble presents a representative cross-section of her instrumental music, creating space to experience the breadth and complexity of her artistic vision.

Beyond the concert hall

EDEN CINEMA brings together concerts, discussions, film, visual art and a new publication. What becomes possible when music enters into dialogue with other art forms?

The programme approaches ter Schiphorst’s work from several directions. Alongside three concerts, audiences can encounter a multimedia-poetic portrait, discussions with artists and thinkers, silent film accompanied by her music, and parallel film installations. Laura Talamini’s painting exhibition adds another visual dimension to the day.

This variety allows the audience to enter the music through different experiences. A concert offers one kind of encounter; a film, a conversation or a visual artwork offers another. Together, they create a broader portrait of an artistic practice that cannot be reduced to a single style or format.

The programme also creates opportunities to consider how music relates to language, images, history and society and how these relationships can change the way we listen.

An invitation to listen differently

What would you like people who have never experienced contemporary music to take away from EDEN CINEMA?

We would like people to discover that new music is an open field of possibilities, a place to explore the world around us and ourselves within it, to search, question and find new perspectives. And to have fun while doing so.

Contemporary music does not need to offer a single answer or prescribe one way of listening. It can invite us to be curious, to embrace the unfamiliar and to experience sound as something alive and constantly changing.

For more than 17 years, this spirit of exploration has been at the centre of Zafraan Ensemble’s work. With EDEN CINEMA, that journey continues through the music of Iris ter Schiphorst, bringing together sound, image, text and conversation in a programme that rewards curiosity.

Across the day, Alte Münze becomes a place to move between different artistic worlds: to listen, watch, reflect and return to music with fresh ears. Whether through the intimacy of a chamber work, the encounter between music and silent film, or the unexpected meeting of contemporary composition and a voice from rock music, EDEN CINEMA offers an invitation to experience what happens when boundaries become possibilities rather than limits.

Event highlights

EDEN CINEMA — A celebration of Iris ter Schiphorst

• 15:00 — Painting exhibition by Laura Talamini
• 15:30 — Concert: Ballade für einen Bulldozer
• 16:45 — Discussion: Klang, Text, Handwerk – Die Vermittlung des Unhörbaren
• 18:00 — Concert: Im Schatten alt-ehrwürdiger Polyesterbäume
• 19:15 — Screening of La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928), with music by Iris ter Schiphorst
• 20:20 — Discussion: Berlin, Aufbruch in den 90ern
• 21:15 — Concert: Das vorletzte Glas, featuring HYPER-DUB with Dirk von Lowtzow
• From 22:30 — Closing celebration with DJ Grégoire Simon

Film installations run in parallel with the programme.

Date: 18.10.27
Venue: Alte Münze, Berlin
Tickets: here

About Zafraan Ensemble

Zafraan Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble whose work explores the realities of the present through sound and collaboration across artistic disciplines. Its core members bring together flute, clarinets, saxophones, harp, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Production management: Piotr van Gielle Ruppe and Janna Hoffmann
Management: Sofia Surgutschowa