Hikari

The Japanese have certainly brought the concept of cute to its extreme.

When something is cute, it’s totally impossible to say something about it. As if the mind has been numbed with some drug and is incapable of any fair judgement. I cannot help but be completely fascinated by this cute phenomenon, even if, once sober, I wouldn’t even think of liking it.

I enjoy to bask in Cuteland!

I found myself at HMV yesterday and saw a whole gathering of young crowd. They were waiting in line to meet and shake hand with a new young artist, Hayashi Naojiro, who was launching his debut single Hikari. There I saw a perfect embodiment of cute. Handsomely cute with the cutest smile to have everyone drop on the floor at his sight. There was a joy to say that word to describe him. Because the song they were playing on repeat wasn’t particularly striking. A well... cute melody with a none too risky ut pleasant arrangement. I was however surprised by the warmth of his baritone voice. I wonder what kind of future he’s going to have in this music business jungle.

I’m now working on this music installation that I proposed to do for the theatre. Jo was enthusiastic about it. I’m going to use this poem, Der Abschied, which is taken from Gustav Mahler’s song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde. It was apparently two old Chinese poems in their German translation combined into one. Mahler subsequently made a few alterations and added the final line. Ewig… ewig (eternally… eternaly…)

This word I used as the sole word for the finale sung by Isabelle. This finale is really the crowning of the whole journey that is PLAY 2 PLAY.

If I didn’t manage one more time to write happy music, I at least could gear my music to end on a hopeful, if not positive note. I would say serene.

This music is really mirroring what I have been through the past year. A year of letting go, facing my old demons, leaving what wasn’t mine to carry, cutting unnecessary bonds… Those struggles and resolutions find their way in the music. Now I wonder what is going to happen. I see the world of possibilities in front of me. It’s impressive and frightening. But it’s my life and I’m so proud to live it.

The installation is conceived as an introduction to the ballet. I didn’t want people to arrive at the theatre and follow their habitual routine.

I created three spaces: Ewig, Der Abschied, and M/F. The first two are based on the poem, when the third one is a dry description of what the dancers are doing on stage, backed by a minimalist rhythm track.

The theatre offers plenty of room and space for the installation. I also would like to make a video of Sawako simply staring at the camera. Like a live portrait. Yes, I got that idea from the Bob Wilson exhibition I saw in New York. The difference is that I want those images to be projected randomly on the ground, and on one of the white walls of the theatre. As if somewhere the show had already taken place before the audience actually sees it.

PLAY 2 PLAY: first run through - emotional

We had our first complete run through of PLAY 2 PLAY this afternoon. Mihara-san was there with his staff to show the nine-bodies-in-one costume. He said my music inspired him Yves Klein's blue colour! I had some recollection of the real shade of the Yves Klein blue and was a bit worried about what he would present us. But when we saw the piece he designed, all our doubts fell flat on the ground.

Then came the run through.

I hadn’t seen what Jo had done for the finale. He asked me if I was okay to have spoken words on the cello movement. I really have a problem with having spoken words with music. Words call for your mind to work, when I try to get beyond that and let the audience use their senses and imagination.

So I wasn’t very convinced at all and that bugged me.

The dancers got prepared for the run through. Seventy minutes of non-stop dance.

At the end, I had tears in my eyes. I just couldn’t help it. I was so moved. It was too overwhelmingly beautiful. The finale was fantastic. How much Jo did put of himself in this work!

A few dancers were sobbing as well. The rehearsal studio was charged with intensity. No one knew what to say. I was crying silently, trying at first to look fine, but then quite unable to hold back the tears. It felt so good.

Mihara-san was impressed. Jo was concerned that he didn’t feel any involvement from him. But the manager and her assistant who came to help Mihara now realized that PLAY 2 PLAY wasn’t just any project.

I guess this finale with Isabelle’s voice did cast some kind of spell over people. I hope the audience feel the same. How I wish she were there!

The young stagiaires who had watched play for the first time without practicing on the side, were particularly touched and brought even more enthusiasm and heart afterwards.

A very good day indeed. We celebrated that at Nelson, of course. Any excuse was good enough to go there anyway…

Progressing

The mirror panels arrived on Tuesday, so we could work with the whole set that Tsuyoshi created for PLAY 2 PLAY. Nine triangular mirror panelled pillars, each being three meters tall, one meter wide and weighing more than 100 kilos! Poor dancers, in spite of the casters, they have to gather all their strength to move them with accuracy.

To my taste, in spite of their beauty, they are slightly too monolithic a set design and visually take lots of space.

My feeling was proven right after the first run through. Because of the reflections of the dancers on the panels, it was virtually impossible to focus on the dance itself. Jo had to concede it was too much for the viewer.

So he decided to move those pillars as little as possible until past the first half of the piece. At that point, they form a circular glass sanctuary out of which the dancers attempt to escape. It’s a striking scene with a heavy ritualistic tone - yes I know, largely because of the music I wrote.

Jo is now finishing the very last movement, Ewig, the soprano aria sung by Isabelle, which is also a dance solo for Sawako.

What I’ve see so far seems fairly academic to me. But they had just two minutes to show me. I’m quite curious to see the whole scene.

I had been invited to see a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth done in Japanese style, with kodo drums and a kabuki actor playing Lady Macbeth.

I feared another endurance art sitting, but the experience proved, if not life-changing, at least interesting and at times inspiring.

I particularly liked the how the director developed the parts of the three witches. They appeared as three uneasily identical girls with their three drummer counterparts. When not needed in the plot, they would join them to play drums and create a very exciting musical background.

Earthquake

Earthquake this morning. I was trying to sleep longer and was in a state of semi-wakefulness, when the whole building started rocking. At first I thought the cleaning lady was in the room and shaking the bed, but then I saw the curtains swinging. Was I to get up and grab my things and leave the hotel?

I waited a few more seconds. This time, the quake lasted a good twenty seconds, which is very long.

Apparently, old parts of the suburbs were destroyed, especially old wooden houses that have crumbled down.

From the Sado Island, Pb told me that quake was much stronger. Good thing I didn’t decide to visit him this week end.

But I had already accepted to attend a private Butoh performance held in a traditional Japanese wooden house.

I met Jo and Sawa for a drink at Nelson before we set off to the house. It was a magnificent place, surrounded by a small but well groomed miniature garden. The plum trees were blooming. I could stop and watch everyone of them each time I’d see one.

Endurance art. This word from Sean and Bibbe will remain whenever I have to sit through a tough artistic experience.

The butoh dancer was the only lady who did that in Niigata, and according to Jo’s words, was recognized for being good at her art. She used to dance within companies for twenty years and now is working by herself, performing and teaching workshops.

We were all freezing as she did her dance during what seemed like centuries but actually lasted only one hour. According to my poor experience with Butoh I never got to see a dancer who managed to find this subtle line where the ego disappears and the body just exists as a being. At time, I seemed to seize that from that dancer, but as she admitted herself after, she forced it too much and her delivery took us to a very unpleasant place, filled with tension and bleakness. I was praying the ghastly dance would end the next minute. A musician was creating a background out of a flute, a thumb-piano and a didgeridoo while she would utter throaty sounds. It reminded me of some African religious rituals, minus the earthly energy.

No, no, no. However good she was - her command of her body was impressive, however interesting it could have been, I was not into endurance art. 

At some point my numbed mind recalled a quote from Joan Collins saying that the best work out exercise you can do when you have too much food on the table is to push it away. And now the lady was writhing on the floor. I just hope I’ll be clever enough to foresee it next time.

Maybe I should have visited Pb this week end after all...

Sound installation

As if it wasn’t enough, new, bright ideas sprang out of my mind yesterday evening, when Jo, Sawako and I had our dinner ritual after work, this time at Nelson again.

I was toying with this idea of creating more music and make a sound installation in the theatre. As soon as the audience would step through the sliding doors they would already be caught in the world of PLAY 2 PLAY. I will create a multi-tracked piece in which each section would be played in a different area of the venue. Jo didn’t really know what to do with this new dancer Yuta. He’s got some acting training so the initiative to use a speaking voice originated there. But I was less than convinced when I heard him speak during the movements, even if his interventions were very brief. Jo wants the text to be a dry description of the dancers’ movements.

After a long time of brainstorming, I came up with this proposition to use his voice for the installation. Jo immediately loved the idea. The voices will be mixed with musical elements of the ballet. In the theatre room, music will be played as the audience take their seats as the music flows and blends into the beginning of the piece. I had dreamed about doing this kind of installation for my concerts, but we had no time nor means. Here the enthusiastic support I feel from Jo gives me wings to achieve one more millions things.

If we have enough time, I will also do some short video clips of the dancers in motion that will projected intermittently on the floor as well as on the company board screen, like apparitions of what is to come.

Bunraku Theatre

I had a photo shoot today for the program. We had to re-create working situations that look good. The theatre offered a perfect setting. Lots of light, big walls, big spaces, nice volumes…

Me scribbling down music on the sheets, editing on the computer, attending the rehearsals, talking with Jo, talking with the dancers, mixing in the studio room…

I managed to talk Tomoko into having Isabelle and Christophe featured in the program. Their name will be mentioned with the addition of a small picture to make it more alive.

Tomoko also asked me to write a message to Tsuyoshi. Each four of us had to write a little line for someone. Jo and I always joked that Tsuyoshi was to be held responsible for all the troubles we have encountered until now with this wall he designed. But I resisted the impulse!

 

I attended a Bunraku show, that is, Japanese traditional puppet drama theatre. I had had a glimpse of it at the beginning of Takeshi Kitano’s film Dolls, but it was the first I saw one live. Bunraku is regarded as the most highly developed puppet theatre art in the world. Each puppet requires three puppeteers to bring it to life, and the manipulators appear openly, in full view, dressed in black so not to distract the audience. On the side of the stage, another small stage was built for the musicians: a narrator/singer and a shamisen player. I was surprised to see that the narrator and the musician changed for each new act. I later learned that there is some kind of hierarchy in the Bunraku world. The masters appear for the last act, which is usually the apotheosis of the tragedy, and they only can show their face as they manipulate the puppets.

I must admit I nearly fell asleep during the first act. It was such a change of pace from the rehearsal that my body needed time to adapt. A woman was also dozing next to me. I realized that many others did as well. I nearly wanted to leave. But the woman who invited me had got me a very good seat, and it would have been rude not to stay.

Jo later told me he also thought of leaving because of the same reason.

The second act caught my full attention and I was completely under the spell for the last act. The musicians, the narrator and especially the masters playing the puppet were mesmerising. The story follows usually the classic line of the ill-fated love story which ends with death or suicide, and the last act is always highly anticipated, for it is the apotheosis. 

I’m now very glad I didn’t foolishly leave and miss such a beautiful show. Jo and the people from the theatre were enchanted and proud that I enjoyed the show.

Triangular Response II

Tsuyoshi panels have arrived today, without the mirrors though. They’re so huge and weigh up to 100 kg each! How the dancers will be moving them with accuracy in spite of the casters is another story. They still have a whole month of rehearsal.

Jo worked again on the Choral "Triangular Response" movement and what he did last time was erased from everybody’s memory. Mihara’s costume also arrived today, but they proved a bit superfluous since the strength of that nine-bodied creature comes from the fact that we do not see the costume. We will see how things evolve. For now, Jo has tried another direction: in circle formed by the panels is a human mountain on top of which each dancer tries to climb away. The combination of the choral music and Isabelle’s voice gives the whole tableau a mystical strength that will place it as the core of the whole ballet. The scene is not yet finished, and Jo has still to figure out what to do with Mihara’s creation.