Rhythmical Zones

Rhythmical Zones is a radiophonic essay by Florencia Curci and Kerstin Ergenzinger, composed through sonic dérives and perceptual tuning exercises along the partially buried waterscapes of Weimar (Germany). The work unfolds in conversation with custom-made wind instruments, built and played to meet both in their beating frequencies and in the rhythms of the players’ breath.

Most of the city’s streams—except for the prominent, manicured Ilm—are channeled underground, hidden by landscape design strategies. Following these submerged flows, the piece opens a contact zone: a space where rhythms from different temporal layers—biological, social, geological—interfere and overlap. It weaves together the sonic journeys of the self-made wind instruments with breath, resonant architectures, and the flows of air and water. These instruments, made from PET bottles, were developed during a previous journey along the waters of the Yendegaia Valley in Southern Patagonia (Chile) and conceived by the artists as tools to cultivate moments of contact.

For those listening away from the field, the piece offers a navigation shaped by these practices—tracing how sound, rhythm, and movement converge in the search for shared points of resonance.