The church of Santa Celia in Jaca hosted a Zaruk concert on Thursday evening as part of the 33rd International Festival on the Camino de Santiago organised by the Huesca Provincial Council. The band Zaruk is made up of its co-founder, Iris Azquinez, a cellist and composer, and Rainer Seiferth, a guitarist, viola player, arranger, composer and other part of the Zaruk duo. They started as a group in 2016. The premiere of Agua was postponed due to the pandemic and they managed to do it in the fall of 2020.“Although things have changed a lot since then, as we have diversified in songs, arrangements and instruments,” she said, arriving at the festival with new energy and fresh air.
The charm, spontaneity and complicity of the performers, the care and elegance of the arrangements make Zarrouk a unique group. In Santa Celia, they recreated their own world, which seduced the audience from the first minute by transporting them “to a timeless place”, all supported by the diversity of their musical sources and inspirations, and their unique way of combining them to compose a musical piece. An original and captivating sound world. We arrange popular songs, classical works and our own compositions.highlights Azquinez. “Jean Sibelius and his incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. From it, we put together two miniatures, The Naiad Dance and The Iris Melodrama, in the same order,” recalls Seiferth.
Moreover, while the Santa Celia audience enjoyed and applauded them, the spaces for improvisation make every Zarouk concert unique. Each artist has his own preferences. Iris, for example, loves the first improvisation, “Rain in the City.”and the work that unites the previous repertoire and this one, Si la marera de leche, while Rainer encourages listening to each piece “as if we were listening to a storyteller.”
For Iris Azquenizer, this is a very special year, “because I have been a mother and I enjoy everything in a different way. I have had to give up a lot of concerts, but I hope I can make up for some later. I have just released my latest solo cello album (Hierro y Verde), and Together with Zaruk we are developing an artist residency in Würzburg. (Germany), where we expanded our research into the water reference.
For Rainer Seiferth, it is also an exceptional year, “because I will open a music academy in my city, San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It will be a place very similar to Zarrouk’s idea, a space for creativity and listening. On the other hand, My stay in Germany makes me very excited, we have invited two collaborators to create new materialsAnd the Argentine bandoneonist Luis Caruana and the German poet Pauline Vog. With my other group, Taracea, I will also be touring this summer and among others, we will be going to Rome for the first time.
