La Roza Enflorese

The Belgian group La Roza Enflorese has been interpreting the Sephardic monodic repertoire since 2000. Originating in an oral tradition, these songs are open to a wide range of interpretative possibilities. Made up of five musicians with a variety of backgrounds (including classical, jazz and folk music), the ensemble presents these songs as an encounter between early, traditional and modern music, drawing both on instrumental techniques inspired by popular music and on improvisation.

Aiming to create a varied and contrasting sound-world, La Roza Enflorese brings together instruments from different places and periods (vielles, viols, lute, vihuela, oud, kanun, saz, recorders, crumhorns and percussion instruments from the Near and Middle East). While this instrumental richness contrasts with the Sephardic tradition (in which songs were performed by a female singer, accompanied at most by a frame drum), it nonetheless exemplifies the influences which have enriched this tradition since the 1492 diaspora. This approach seems particularly relevant at the time when cultural boundaries are being erased (at least through the arts) and when culture is becoming more than ever a matter of encounters.

In their last programmes and particularly in Exilio, their 5th album released in 2016, La Roza Enflorese opens to new repertoire: medieval monodic songs, Spanish Renaissance polyphonies and original compositions.

July 2017