Mori Ikue 'Kibyoshi' Japan Tour

Next week, Makigami Koichi will participate in the Japan tour of Mori Ikue's "Kibyoshi" performance.

It's a mixed media presentation based on Kibyoshi, a genre of Japanese picture book produced from 1775 to the early 18th century (wikipedia).

About 20 years ago, John Zorn gave her a book regarding Kibyoshi and she was soon fascinated with it. She vaguely envisioned for making a piece of work about it some day. In 2000, she started making music and animation with computer. At first she used a Bali art for motif and gradually turned to her roots, Japanese Culture. "Kibyoshi" is the latest project she committed.

For "Kibyoshi" DVD, Mori created animation and laid the basic tracks for herself, then Makigami and Marc Nauseef overdubbed their parts.

In this tour, Mori and Makigami are the regular member, and there are some musicians participated as guest so the personel is different for each date.

The tour dates are:

June 15 - Oriental Hotel Chapel, Hiroshima
June 16 - Dainana Geijutsu Gekijo, Osaka
June 17 - Uplink Theatre, Shibuya, Tokyo
June 18 - Uplink Theatre, Shibuya, Tokyo
June 19 - Cinema Maebashi, Maebashi, Gunma
June 21 - Hinoki Charity Hall, Yugawara, Kanagawa
June 22 - Shimokitazawa Alley Hall, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo

The work and performance sound pretty interesting and it's surely a must-see.


June 15, 2011
@ Oriental Hotel Chapel
Hiroshima
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Yoshimi (percussions)
open 18:30 - start 19:00
adv 4,000 yen - at door 4,500 yen
call for reservation at 082-240-9463 (in Japanese) 11:00-20:00

Oriental Hotel, Hiroshima

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June 16, 2011
@ Dainana Geijutsu Gekijo
Osaka
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Yoshimi (percussions)
open 19:00 - start 19:30
adv 3,000 yen - at door 3,500 yen
Tickets now available at Ticket Pia

Dainana Geijutsu Gekijo, Osaka

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June 17, 2011
@ Uplink Theatre
Shibuya, Tokyo
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar, daxophone), Jim O'Rouke (guest)
open 19:00 - start 19:30
adv 2,500 yen - at door 3,000 yen


June 18, 2011
@ Uplink Theatre
Shibuya, Tokyo
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar, daxophone), Nakahara Masaya (guest)
open 18:30 - start 19:00
adv 2,500 yen - at door 3,000 yen

Uplink Theatre, Shibuya, Tokyo

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June 19, 2011
@ Cinema Maebashi
Maebashi, Gunma
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar, daxophone)
open 18:30 - start 19:00
adv 3,000 yen - at door 3,500 yen
call for reservation at 027-231-8000 (in Japanese)

Cinema Maebashi, Gunma

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June 21, 2011
@ Hinoki Charity Hall
Yugawara, Kanagawa
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar, daxophone), Motonaga Taku (shakuhachi), Kanda Yoshiko (percussion)
open 18:30 - start 19:00
adv 3,000 yen - at door 3,500 yen (student 1,000 yen)

Hinoki Charity Hall, Yugawara

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June 22, 2011
@ Shimokitazawa Alley Hall
Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
personnel: Mori Ikue (animation, electronics), Makigami Koichi (narration, theremin, mouth harp), Uchihashi Kazuhisa (guitar, daxophone), Motonaga Taku (shakuhachi), Kanda Yoshiko (percussion), Jim O'Rourke (synthesizer)
open 19:00 - start 19:30
adv 4,300 yen - at door 4,800 yen

Shimokitazawa Alley Hall, Tokyo

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note: Jim O'Rourke (June 17) and Nakahara Masaya (June 18) are talk session participants and will not perform.

Godzilla Legend 2009

Tomoda Shingo, the drummer of the Godzilla Legend concert in this June, also uploaded a set of clips from the Godzilla Legend performance in 2009.

In some of the clips, the percussions are rather high in the mix. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the event was originally planned for demonstrating Highleads, an electric drum kit which Tomoda designed.


















Related entry:
The Godzilla Legend Concert in Kichijoji

The Godzilla Legend Concert in Kichijoji

This month, Inoue Makoto will play a set of the repertoire that he loved most, the soundtrack from the early monster movies including Godzilla. It will be held as an attraction of the film festival called "Bakuon Film Festival."

The performance itself will be a 40 minutes set and then a screening of the first Godzilla movie follows.

Tomoda Shingo, the drummer, uploaded a video from a rehearsal for the concert. In it he played Highleads, a percussion kit which he designed.




In 2009, Inoue did a small gig of his Godzilla music for the first time in over 20 years. It wasn't much publicized and many fans didn't even notice it. It's unsure he will do it again near future, so don't miss the opportunity.


June 27, 2011
"Godzilla" with the Godzilla Legend Concert
Inoue Makoto (synthesizer)
Tomoda Shingo (Highleads electric drums)
Yoshida Tomomi and Bukimisha (choir)
@ Baus Theatre
Kichijoji, Tokyo
20:15 open - 20:30 start
adv 2,500 yen
Tickets now available via Ticket Pia

Kichijoji Baus Theatre

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Das Nasobem and Hi-Ai-Ai Island

In the 2011 spring tour, Hikashu regularly played "Hi-Ai-Ai Island," an album cut from the 1988 "Ningen No Kao" album. The song was revived at their gig after a long absence.

The arrangement was basically the same with the live version found in "Hikashu History," but this time it preceded a recitation of a poem by Mita Freeman. The poem is "Das Nasobēm" by Christen Morgenstern (wikipedia). Mita read it in original German.

Das Nasobēm

Auf seinen Nasen schreitet
einher das Nasobēm,
von seinem Kind begleitet.

Es steht noch nicht im Brehm.
Es steht noch nicht im Meyer.
Und auch im Brockhaus nicht.

Es trat aus meiner Leyer
zum ersten Mal ans Licht.

Auf seinen Nasen schreitet
(wie schon gesagt) seitdem,
von seinem Kind begleitet,
einher das Nasobēm.



The Nasobame

Striding on its noses
there comes the Nasobame,
with its young in the tow.

It isn't yet in Brehm's
It isn't yet in Meyer's
And neither in Brockhaus'

It trotted out of my lyre
when it came first to light.

Striding on its noses
thereon (as I've said above),
there goes the nasobame.

The lyrics of the song, penned by Makigami, was based on a strange book called "Bau und Leben der Rhinogradentia" by Harald Stümpke (wikipedia). It's about Hana Aruki, an imaginary creature described in the book. "Hana Aruki" is the Japanese name, endowed by Hidaka Toshitaka, the renowned scientist and the translator of the book. In original German, it's called Nasobēm. In English, it's called Rhinogradentia (wikipedia).

The original notes on the album, uncredited but probably by makigami, explains the song as follows:

Based on a book called "Bau und Leben der Rhinogradentia" by H. Stümpke, the song is about the descriptions and the impressions of Rhinogradentia, a creature walking by its nose.

The island which completely browned out by an atomic bomb experiment and the study of Rhinogradentia make a mockery of the common sense vividly. Also pretty inspiring. A mysterious song.

The Japanese edition of the book was published in 1987 and soon recognized as a minor classic by the connoiseurs. Makigami, an avid reader, was quite impressed with the book and wrote a song based on it.

Hi-Ai-Ai Island
words - makigami, music - mitama


The amazing nostrils
The spur of life
The warmness of nature
Hana Aruki
Hi-Ai-Ai

The living nostrils
Morgenstern was surprised
and wrote a poem about it.
Hana Aruki
Hi-Ai-Ai
Hi-Ai-Ai

The island was full of noses.
I wanna know your nice secrets.
Tidings on noses
Hi-Ai-Ai
Hi-Ai-Ai
Hi-Ai-Ai

Hana Aruki in despair
A pointless experiment was executed,
Then everything sinked
and disappeared.
Hi-Ai-Ai
Hi-Ai-Ai
Hi-Ai-Ai

The poem Morgenstern wrote referred in the song is no other than "Das Nasobēm."



Related Entry:
Hikashu - Ningen No Kao (1988)