Sakamoto tour, 2005
In performance: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Skuli Sverrisson, Christian Fennesz, Keigo 'Cornelius' Oyamada, Steve Jansen
Fish
fishtanks are often on view outside restaurants offering the freshest of bites. photo by gobi
artists and crew
before the third tokyo show we all took time out to pose for a tour photo: stage crew, lighting crew, live visual crew, management and artists. photo by Mei Feng
Christian Fennesz
a typical soundcheck with christian creating a world of his own. photo by steve
Christian and the truck
we performed at the 'rockin on' festival a few hours outside tokyo - I'm told about 40,000 people turned out although most were probably there to see rock performers... we somehow survived. this is christian about ready to leave. photo by steve
Cornelius
keigo (aka cornelius) looking momentarily startled as i snapped this shot of him with his wealth of effects - he makes a great racket. photo by steve
Japanese dining
japanese dining... presentation was everything. photo by gobi
Fire escape
my son, jude (5), enjoys taking pictures and his choice of subject matter never fails to fascinate me. photo by jude
Door
the capitol tokyu hotel (regular haunt for musicians staying in tokyo) sits next to a beautiful hidden temple where impressive detail such as this is to be found. photo by gobi
Late bar
after the show in fukuoka we ate together at a restaurant run by a friend of Ryuichi which specialised is some very memorable and free-flowing sake. it naturally followed that we all decided to walk to a nearby bar where we remained until the small hours. photo by steve
Jude
jude enjoys dressing up! photo by steve
Jude and Steve
jude and i about to enter the icc for an improv band performance as part of the laurie anderson exhibit on show there. photo by gobi
at the kit
photo by y. tominaga
ICC Event
here we are improvising a new set with no preparation, aside from a monologue by laurie anderson, at the icc - a part of laurie's exhibit. the icc (museum of contemporary art) is being forced to close and this could be one of the last events to take place there. there is talk of this recording being released sometime in the future.
photos courtesy of Epiphanyworks
awaiting the arrival of the bullet train
thankfully there are air conditioned spaces on the platform. photo by gobi
patiently…
…awaiting soundcheck to commence. photo by kiyo
square fruit
only in japan? photo by steve
stairway to heaven
the hidden temple by the hotel. photo by gobi
Ryuichi - dressing room
ryuichi backstage in nagoya, more often than not on his laptop as we all were due to airport connections at every venue. photo by steve
skuli in soundcheck
photo by steve
ryuichi onstage in soundcheck
still on his laptop. photo by steve
my set up for the tour
extras include the
v-drum,
handsonic, and a Mac Powerbook running MOTU's
DP 4.6 and
MachFive, along with the usual
Tama drums,
Sabian cymbals and
Pro Mark sticks. photo by steve
skuli
skuli (the iceman who wears cardigans in tropical weather conditions) making the most of our sanctuary... a prefab dressing room in a huge park hosting the 'rockin on' festival. photo by steve
the red room
ryuichi's label very kindly presented each band member with digital camera - a photo war ensured.. who could take the least flattering shot? Christian and I fought hard and I think he won. photo by steve
Sale promo
a sales promotion in a fashion store in tokyo... oddly enough aimed at young girls! photo by gobi
shoji
shoji windows (rice paper) slide across regular windows in the hotel room - a great means of shutting out a poor view but keeping all the light... and a great source of fun for kids. photo by steve
rice crackers
probably the best rice crackers in the world. photo by gobi
Ryuichi - piano soundcheck
ryuichi soundchecking the piano - which was also physically played via midi. during rehearsals i assumed that some of the piano parts were on hard disk as i knew ryu wasn't playing them all but i got a surprise during the encore of the first show when i was able to see ryuichi playing from behind - many of the keys were moving on their own. photo by steve
the same late bar in fukuoka...
the corrugated iron made a good backdrop for these postcards, i thought. photo by steve
Concentrating hard...
hang in there! - Keigo in the background. Photo by Y. Tominaga
Homeward bound
despite how this looks, japan was experiencing some extremely warm temperatures this summer with more humidity than you'd imagine possible without actually raining. however, the day we departed it was indeed raining. photo by jude
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