{"id":13354,"date":"2026-02-19T16:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/project\/water-piece\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T15:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:40:41","slug":"water-piece","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/project\/water-piece\/","title":{"rendered":"WATER PIECE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ania Losinger \u2013 Xala III (elektroacoustic resonant floor xylophone, played by dancing), effects<br \/>\nMats Eser \u2013 fender rhodes, percussion, effects<br \/>\nField Recording: Porto Sa Ruxi (39\u00b007\u201947.7\u2033N 9\u00b027\u201912.3\u2033E)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WATER PIECE\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1114863444?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>WATER PIECE Water Piece is about a place. \u2028It is also about a state of being.\u2028 Arriving and letting go \u2014 within the eternal cycle.<br \/>\nIt is a place of childhood and of dying.<br \/>\nA bay in southern Sardinia, encircled by sand dunes, Mediterranean plants, and round, granite boulders washed smooth by the sea.<br \/>\nLonging and fulfilment.<br \/>\nIt is winter, it is lonely.\u2028 Time to remember. To sink into the North. To Sleep.<br \/>\nSalt in the wind. Endless soughing.\u2028 An eternally continuous ebb and flow of water.       <\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n<h2>The Instruments<\/h2>\n<p>Ania Losinger\u2019s Xala III is a unique instrument and the third model of her series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/instrumentarium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">XALA<\/a> inventions. In contrast to earlier acoustic versions, it is electro-acoustic. Each sounding board of wood and metal is fitted with a contact microphone and every note that is played is run through a mixer where effects are added. In WATER PIECE Ania uses field recordings for the first time. Recordings of water are cut into individual sounds that are then woven into the music in the same way as the other effects. Mats Eser uses a 1973 Original Suitcase Fender Rhodes and rounds out the electronically modified sounds with acoustic percussion instruments    <\/p>\n<h2>Ania Losinger and Mats Eser<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201c\u2026Losinger and Eser transform rhythm into sound and succeed in a fascinating way in the moment of reduction, of relief. The lightness and poetry with which the polyrhythmically-repetitive structures unfold allow the motoric element to recede into the background. Constantly in motion, symmetrical yet amorphous, this deeply personal and refreshingly unpretentious music carries and touches you from within\u2026\u201d   <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/biography\/\">Ania Losinger,<\/a> dancer and musician, dances and plays on the world\u2019s first floor xylophone \u2013 the Xala. She developed this unique instrument in 1998\/99 together with instrument maker Hamper von Niederh\u00e4usern.\u2028The Xala is a sound object made of wood and metal tones. It is played through dance \u2013 with flamenco shoes and human-sized sticks.\u2028Today, there are three Xalas that differ in size and timbre. This invention allows for a complete fusion of music and dance.     <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/mats-eser\/\">Mats Eser<\/a> works as a musician, composer, and producer across a wide stylistic range. He has a special interest in the richness of percussive sounds and the art of staging them musically.\u2028As a multi-instrumentalist, he creates ever-new and surprising sound mixtures with marimba, vibraphone, Fender Rhodes, drums, self-developed glass instruments, select cymbals, and Asian gongs.\u2028The resulting music has long since transcended all stylistic boundaries and touches the listener directly.   <\/p>\n<p>The <g id=\"gid_0\">live performance<\/g> of WATER PIECE is a dialogue between two instruments and two musicians, where joy meets depth, and compositional complexity meets playful precision.\u2028The artists merge into the soundscapes they bring to life on stage, filling the space with them.\u2028Ania Losinger doesn\u2019t just play her Xala \u2013 she becomes part of it \u2013 an archaic and at the same time modern presence of tremendous energetic force.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1114865203\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Video-Impressions of earlier Productions with Xala III and Fender Rhodes<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>How Ania Losinger develops her own artistic synthesis<\/h2>\n<p><em>&#8230;\u201cShe never liked to dance on a rough surface. Though the gypsies in Andalusia unreservedly celebrate Flamenco dancing on bone-dry earth or uneven village squares \u2013 she was seeking to secure something else from it. For this reason, she was always irritated when she arrived at a venue and discovered that the stage was built of rough, uneven boards. \u201cHow can I create nuanced sounds on these?\u201d For instance, the light scrape of the tip of a shoe when, proud as Carmen, she weaves a spell around herself? The gradual crescendo of heels driving each other towards the ultimate danced statement? Or the hollow impact of the balls of the feet, like a signal sent to the center of the Earth? <\/em><br \/>\n<em>She decided to build herself her own stage, created layers of metal, pieces of carpet and other materials, installed pickups, experimented.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The dancer speaks of a \u00abstroke of fate\u00bb, that brought her together with instrument builder, Hamper von Niederh\u00e4usern. In those days she was dreaming of \u00aban acoustic sounding floor\u00bb. Thus, in a process of close collaboration, the Xala, a floor-xylophone weighing 400kg and measuring 4,5 square meters was developed, which can be played with the feet and danced upon. It opened up new dimensions and a new artistic era for Ania Losinger.   <\/em><br \/>\n<em>The headstrong artist basically sees herself as a researcher. This is obvious, since with each step she takes on her Xala she is traveling on uncharted territory. In all the world no such other such instrument exists and no other has mastered the complexity of playing upon it. Herein lies Ania\u2019s great achievement: On this sounding-floor, this stage that has been uniquely tailored to her, her entire art is developed and constantly invents itself anew.   <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Many perceive this woman, who once was part of the national rhythmic gymnastics squad, as an Amazon. Something unyielding emanates from her, pliant and lithe though her body may be. Is she an athlete or an artist? A musical dancer or a dancing musician? \u00abMy dream has always been to unite music and dance in equal measure in a single person\u00bb.    <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Losinger\u2019s aesthetic is clear and direct, her movements are disciplined, her gaze betrays the highest concentration. Is she in a trance as she dances and plays? \u00abI wouldn\u2019t call it a trance\u00bb, she answers, \u00abrather, a state of utmost presence, such that I could never otherwise attain and experience. I hear and am aware of everything that is happening in the room, each single sound, the overtones, the vibrations and resonance. Everything. And all at the same time.\u00bb  <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Wherever Ania Losigner performs \u2013 solo in a Jazz cellar, with the Berner Symphonieorchester in the Casino theatre in Bern, as Cinderella at the children\u2019s theatre, with Mats Eser touring through Europe or in Shanghai \u2013 she is always completely self-aware and radiates a magical effect that no-one can ignore\u2026\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/portfolio\/taenzerin-auf-ihrem-magischen-klangkoerper-xala\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Berner Almanach<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Contact<\/h2>\n<p>ania [at] anialosinger.com<br \/>\ninfo [at] matseser.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ania Losinger \u2013 Xala III (elektroacoustic resonant floor xylophone, played by dancing), effects Mats Eser \u2013 fender rhodes, percussion, effects Field Recording: Porto Sa Ruxi (39\u00b007\u201947.7\u2033N 9\u00b027\u201912.3\u2033E) WATER PIECE Water [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"project_category":[120],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-13354","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-current-productions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/13354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13354"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/13354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15121,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/13354\/revisions\/15121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=13354"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anialosinger.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=13354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}