The Five Elements

“…Within an organic cosmos made of minimal rhythms that condense into a fantastic network of colorful sounds, rhythmic pulses and static patterns. The repetitive sound figures engendered on the floor-xylophone Xala are in sharp focus and together with the marimba they create an irresistible attraction. Feathery textures that flicker like fire. At times they sound as arid as dry wood. Or they glitter like water. Listening becomes a percussive theatre of transformaton in which the limits of time and space dissolve”
Der Bund

The Five Elements, developed in 2005 and released four years later on CD, invites you to discover the soundscapes produced by the Xala and a five-octave marimba, and a world of repetitive rhythms and artistic minimalism. The combination of these two instruments reveals a broad spectrum which ranges from poetic, quiet chamber music to magically orchestral power.
The five sections of the performance are thematically related through their common philosophical background: Chinese medicine teaches the doctrine of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, which are traditionally also understood as processes of transformation. Chinese symbolism assigns a certain number to each such phase and this figure forms the metric basis of the Five Elements.
From this concept, Ania Losinger and Mats Eser distill rhythmic and melodic patterns, which – when closing our eyes – evoke moods and images of incredible plasticity. On the one hand the sounds seem to revolve around themselves, on the other, they push forward with subtle force. An atmosphere of tranquility, which stimulates meditation and movement, opens up and has the same archaic and timeless effect. The compositions oscillate between direct and touching harmonies and fascinating impulses, polyrhythmic compression, and moments of apparent weightlessness. Soundscapes interspersed with single notes weave a magical dialogue which inextricably meld the dance, the instruments and the musical result as one.

The piece EARTH as Music Video

Impressions