Sakamoto Tour Japan 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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