To be in Japan!

It’s official now. I’m going to Japan one week after my concert at the Café de la Danse. Jo Kanamori wants me to be composer in residence in Niigata until the premiere of his piece, that is one month and a half later. The flight and accommodation are paid, and I’ll receive a fairly nice amount of money for the work. They also wish to hear some drafts by early September. Ha ha ha.

That kept me awake the whole past night, as I was focused on very blurry ideas, musical shapes that were running through my mind, and visualizing myself in the situation - I will be in Niigata, in this beautiful theatre in the middle of this ghost city on the sea side. Oh yes, work on human sounds, a process I started on W.H.A. with Régine Chopinot. And I can’t even speak the language. How will my flat be? Or will I be staying in a hotel? What about cooking? I heard flows of human sounds. Work on this dogma that Cyril set. Twelve orders to follow. An interesting experiment is would be to only use twelve effects or plug-ins on one single breathing sound, and see how far I can go. Acoustic instruments. I want to use them as well. A piano and maybe some strings. Most of the electronic music I’ve heard lately are whether too abstract or conceptual, or lack warmth. My father always told me that being brilliant is one thing, but what matters the most is the idea – I would say the human experience which connects us to the universal. I could extend this to many other kinds of music, actually. People tend to be more impressed by the production, by the technicality of a piece which often hide the lack of depth.

So my thoughts wandered. For a time, I completely forgot that I was to finish the album and prepare for a concert – the power of the night, I was a double of myself, almost somebody else.  

Kristina and Philip left this morning. Another chapter begins. We shall remember our dinners together, the wine, the Hôtel du Nord. Our S.W.A.T.T. collective really did see the day this month of July. After each day of rehearsal, we would meet for a late dinner, provide by Chez An, and rejoice about being together and envision things in the future. On a refait le monde, my French friends would say when they tell me about their lengthy after-dinner talks. We might not wish to remodel the world, just build ours with lots of joy and pleasure in the process, and I do believe that is possible.

Simon trusts more and more his entrepreneurial sense, as I trust more and more that my days of lonely wandering are over. Kristina gets more and more involved with us, to the point that she thinks of quitting a few jobs to concentrate on our common projects. Constellation will be presented for the Resolution dance festival next year in London, I shall try to organize more concert, one in Japan for instance. My collaboration with Jo Kanamori will certainly be an open door for more opportunities. 

And now I’m on the train to Zürich. One week of doing nothing at all, eating those delicious Luxemburgerli, enjoying Marco’s sumptuous designy flat. Go swim in the lake among the swans – how camp! - something I’ve been craving for at least a whole year...