Xavier Lozano and the story behind Amaia’s ‘saddle flute’: “They came to see me and he did quite well” | Culture | EUROtoday

Surrounded by her group of musicians who accompanied her on percussion, guitar and violin, Amaia additionally confirmed her expertise as an instrumentalist this Thursday on NPR’s Tiny Desk. It was probably the most commented picture of the 22 minutes that this live performance lasted: the Navarrese taking part in a folding chair like a flute for the introduction of Nanaone of many six songs he carried out stay. Then they rang This is life, Zorongo, Auxiliar, Giratutto y Yamaguchi.

The Catalan polyinstrumentalist Xavier Lozano is the wrongdoer of Amaia’s ‘saddle flute’. “Her brother called me. They were very surprised with what I did and they wanted her to play one of my instruments at the Tiny Desk. They came to see me in Badalona, ​​she played the chair and did it quite well. I hesitated, she didn’t play it like me, who has been playing for many years, but she is from a family of musicians and has always been surrounded by instruments,” she explains to EL PAÍS.

This artist is able to making music with virtually something. He says he began together with his grandfather’s crutch. “I looked at it and realized that it was a tube with holes and that it could be played like a flute. I played it and it sounded like always, quite in tune,” he says. He thought the identical factor a few chair leg: even when it did not have holes, he may make them. The set off for a world of objects that would make holes.

He says that he designed a particular chair for this live performance with the holes he wanted for this tune, in order that it could be simpler for him to carry out it: “It’s easy to play it a little, it’s difficult to do it very well, but if you are a flutist you have many points, top parts.” Lozano insists that there have been extra proposals on the desk, comparable to a stool, a lamp or a cane, however the chair fascinated the brothers. Once performed, he assures that Amaia was working towards and that she despatched him a number of movies in order that he may consider how she used it: “It’s as if I had sponsored his idea. He said that it was my invention, it’s not appropriation of ideas. On day 1 he returns it to me. It’s all good vibes.”

Its magic could make music come out of a development fence, a brush, a ladder, a wheel, a watering can or a brick. Being capable of flip all these items into flutes. “I love the flutes of the world and I started playing them when no one was playing them,” he just lately insisted on TV3. On his Instagram account he states that he “lives from the air”, as a result of sure, his music springs from the air and any object that enables him to play with it and that finally ends up being simply one other wind instrument.

Lozano additionally holds a really particular place as a result of for 2 years he has directed the Real Banda de Cadeiras Encartables, a really curious musical group during which folding chairs not solely play, however are the protagonists: “As I live in Galicia, I thought I had to do something special for here. In reality, the leg of the chair is like a normal flute with six holes,” he says. The artist has additionally introduced his artwork by way of his participatory live performance Dailythe place he performs wind devices that he builds himself. He has been touring Catalonia for years and in addition by way of cities in different international locations. In addition, he affords solo concert events and is a part of a trio, Bufa&Sons.

Xavi Lozano’s classical and copla music coaching (he performs the sax, tible and bamboo flutes) led him to change into enthusiastic about wind devices. In his greater than 20 years of profession, he has carried out all varieties of music, from conventional to experimental, together with classical and fusions of all types.

Amaia was not the primary to dare with the chair. Fetén Fetén did the identical factor years in the past when he reviewed his Jota del Wasabi and he carried out it with a tenting chair, a piece by Xavi Lozano that he himself gave them: “They are very dear to me, they always mention me, I have them as references.” This duo from Burgos shaped by Diego Galaz and Jorge Arribas normally makes use of typical devices together with uncommon devices made with on a regular basis and recycled objects and between the 2 of them they know easy methods to play about 30 totally different ones.