Zahir

In what felt like the longest year of their lives so far, the three musicians of Zahir ran into each other in Berlin: Argentine singer Lucía Boffo, pianist Danielle Friedman, who grew up in Israel, and German bassist Lisa Hoppe, who had just returned to her country of origin. 

Zahir is a trio that combines jazz-inspired song formats with free improvisation. Central to this is the linking of language and music on a rhythmic and dramaturgical level, as well as the playful connection of form and content. 

Connected by their multilayered cultural identities and cross connections with each other, Zahir develops music that improvises both delicate and bold nuances, that stays connected to jazz, but wanders wherever associations take them. To be heard, among other things: Ballads of long forgotten thinkers, picked up situation comedy and very urgent wishes. 

The band name Zahir was inspired by the short story "El Zahir" by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. It tells the story of an object, which causes such an obsession in whoever lays eyes on it, that the beholder becomes more and more distant from reality and eventually spends the rest of their life in a dreamlike state. The word zahir ظهير comes from Arabic and can be translated to ‘the revealed’. At the same time, there is a parallel to the Hebrew word zahir (זהיר ) which means ‘careful’.