The episode of the Word-Sound series: German author and artist Root Leeb and Chinese-born musician Xu Fengxia take us into the adventurous world of strong women with wondrous stories and fantastic music. They tell of women who are strong, believe they are strong or want to be strong. Root Leeb tells stories that are reminiscent of precious miniatures in their conciseness. They are enigmatic texts with surprising twists, sometimes bizarre with a nice touch of self-irony. Xu Fengxia plays the guzheng (zither) and sanxian (lute). Sometimes she accompanies the words poetically and thoughtfully, at other times she ignites a fire of sound. When she begins to sing, she evokes the distant world of Chinese opera and takes us, as one reviewer writes, “into the realm of heaven itself”.

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Photo: Barbara Käser

Recorded on October 29, 2011, edited and mixed in spring 2012, sound engineer: Willy Strehler, Guntershausen. Text: Franz Hohler. Produced by Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt, in cooperation with the publishing house Steinbach Sprechende Bücher and Rafik Schami.