‘… a solid ensemble with the music perfectly rehearsed but also with an unusual warmth ...

…a very emotional finale to the festival...' Victorio Calvo

ABOUT LINDSAY COOPER:

Lindsay Cooper (1951-2013) brought the bassoon and the compositional techniques of 20th century art music into the world of ‘70s experimental rock. She was a musical polyglot, equally fluent in classical, rock, jazz, and free improvisation and the author of many film and theatre soundtracks. She was a member of the groups Comus, Henry Cow, National Health, David Thomas and the Pedestrians and the Mike Westbrook Orchestra. She co-founded News from Babel and the Feminist Improvising Group and led her own projects Music for Films and Oh Moscow. She lived for many years with multiple sclerosis, which eventually forced her to retire from performing in the 1990s.

PROGRAMME:

A selection of Lindsay’s compositions for the groups Henry Cow and News From Babel and Music for Films, 1978 – 1982.

ENSEMBLE:

Yumi Hara: arrangements, piano, keyboards, lever harp, voice

Miwazow: koto, ching-dong percussion, voice

Chlöe Herrington: bassoon, soprano sax, melodica

Dagmar Krause: voice

Wataru Okhuma: alto sax, clarinet

Nasuno Mitsuru: bass

Chris Cutler: drums

HISTORY:

In 2013, soon after Lindsay Cooper passed away, Matthew Watkins made a call for arrangements of her mini-composition Slice for a special edition of his podcast ‘Canterbury Sans Frontières: Episode 8’. I made a transcription of the piece and recorded it for solo clavichord. Chris Cutler and I also played it in Japan and NY. A little later, inspired by the three memorial concerts Chris Cutler organised in 2014 with the original bands, I put Half the Sky together to play Lindsay’s music in Japan. The gender split follows Lindsay’s general practice and the example of the original bands - Henry Cow (50% female) and News from Babel (75% female).

SOURCES:

With the exception of Slice, it was only after - and because of - the 2014 concerts that any working scores for the Henry Cow pieces became available, having been painstakingly assembled from Lindsay’s notebooks, original band-members’ surviving parts and careful analysis of the recordings. A handful of the News from Babel songs – none of which had ever been performed live – had already been reconstructed for the memorial concert by Zeena Parkins; the rest I had to work out from scratch – as well as rearranging everything for a mixture of occidental and oriental instruments. This programme is approached very much as a music of the present - and not as an academic reconstruction. (YH)

‘Women hold up half the sky’ Mao Tse Tung

Half the Sky have been supported by: The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Arts Council Tokyo.

Half the Sky list of gigs

2015

personnel: Yumi Hara (arr, p, harp, vo), Chris Cutler (dr), Miwazow (vo, koto, ching-dong perc), Wataru Ohkuma (cl, a.sax), Mitsuru Nasuno (b), Keiko Komori (b.cl, s.sax), Yuriko Mukoujima (vn, melodica, keyboard)

programme: set 1 Auschwitz/Babel, Dry Leaf, Black Gold, Arcades (of Glass), Banknote, Heart of Stone, Waited/Justice, Anno Mirabillis

set 2 Half the Sky, Gretel's Tale, Falling Away, Slice

3 December 2015. GANZ toi,toi,toi, Oumi Building B1F, Nishi-Tenma 5-13-7, Kita-ku, OSAKA 530-0047, JAPAN.  

Open 19.00/start 19:30, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 06-6366-5515.　

http://ganztoitoitoi.com/

4 December 2015. TOKUZO, Blue Star Building 2F, Imaike 1-6-8, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya-shi 464-0850, JAPAN.  

Open 18.00/start 19:00, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 052-733-3709.　

http://www.tokuzo.com

5 December 2015. Club GOODMAN, AS Building B1F, Kanda-Sakuma-Kashi 55, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0026, JAPAN.

Open 19.00/start 19:30, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 03-3862-9010.　

www.clubgoodman.com http://www.clubgoodman.com/blog/?p=10339

6 December 2015. New Bar Isshee, B1F, Sendagi 3-36-11,Tokyo 113-0022, JAPAN.

<Workshop> Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara.

Open 14:00, 5000 JPY (drink order required).

<Performance & Talk>  Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara duo + Wataru Ohkuma (interviewer, cl) and Miwazow Kogure (vo, perc)

Open 19.00, 3500 JPY adv/ 4000 JPY door (drink order required).

(Day ticket: 7000 JPY, drink order required)

http://www.bloc.jp/barisshee/

2016

18 September 2016, Rock in Opposition, Carmaux, FRANCE

personnel: Yumi Hara (arr, p, keyboards, harp, vo), Chris Cutler (dr), Miwazow (vo, koto, ching-dong perc), Wataru Ohkuma (cl, a.sax, keyboard), Mitsuru Nasuno (b), Chlöe Herrington (bassoon, s. sax, melodica), Dagmar Krause (vo)

programme: Auschwitz/Babel, Dry Leaf, Black Gold, Waited/Justice, Banknote, Half the Sky, Gretel's Tale, Falling Away, Slice, Anno Mirabillis

30 November-4 December 2016, Tokyo, JAPAN

personnel: Yumi Hara (arr, p, keyboards, harp, vo), Chris Cutler (dr), Miwazow (vo, koto, ching-dong perc), Wataru Ohkuma (cl, a.sax, keyboard), Mitsuru Nasuno (b), Chlöe Herrington (bassoon, s. sax, melodica)

30 November 2016, Club GOODMAN, AS Building B1F, Kanda-Sakuma-Kashi 55, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0026, JAPAN.

Open 19.00/start 19:30, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 03-3862-9010.　

www.clubgoodman.com http://www.clubgoodman.com/blog/?p=12887

programme: Auschwitz/Babel, Dry Leaf, Black Gold, Arcades (of Glass), Banknote, The Empire Song (from The Golddiggers), Waited/Justice, Anno Mirabillis,

Half the Sky, Gretel's Tale, Falling Away, Slice

[Opening: 'Miwazow sings Brecht', Miwazow (voice, perc), Wataru Ohkuma (cl), Kazuto Shimizu (piano)]

1 December 2016, Club GOODMAN, AS Building B1F, Kanda-Sakuma-Kashi 55, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0026, JAPAN.

Open 19.00/start 19:30, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 03-3862-9010.　

http://www.clubgoodman.com/blog/?p=12898

programme:

set 1 Auschwitz/Babel, Dry Leaf, Black Gold, Arcades (of Glass), Banknote, The Empire Song (from The Golddiggers), Waited/Justice, Anno Mirabillis

set 2 Half the Sky, Gretel's Tale, Falling Away, Slice

[Opening: 'Canterbury Favourites' part 1, Yumi Hara (vo, piano), Kazuto Shimizu (keys, vo), Chris Cutler (d), Mitsuru Nasuno (b), programme included Facelift]

2 December 2016, Club GOODMAN, AS Building B1F, Kanda-Sakuma-Kashi 55, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0026, JAPAN.

Open 19.00/start 19:30, 4300 JPY adv/ 4800 JPY door. 03-3862-9010.　

http://www.clubgoodman.com/blog/?p=12907

programme:

set 1 Auschwitz/Babel, Dry Leaf, Black Gold, Arcades (of Glass), Banknote, The Empire Song (from The Golddiggers), Heart of Stone, Waited/Justice, Anno Mirabillis

set 2 Half the Sky, Gretel's Tale, Falling Away, Slice

[Opening: 'Canterbury Favourites' part 2, Yumi Hara (vo, piano), Kazuto Shimizu (keys, vo), Chris Cutler (d), Mitsuru Nasuno (b), programme included Facelift]

4 December 2016

New Bar Isshee, B1F, Sendagi 3-36-11,Tokyo 113-0022, JAPAN.

<Workshop> Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara, Music of Lindsay Cooper workshop

Open 13:00, participants: 5500 JPY, observers: 4300 JPY (+drink order required).

<Performance & Talk>  Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara duo: Music of Lindsay Cooper

Open 17.00, 3500 JPY adv/ 4000 JPY door/ WS participants free (+drink order required).

http://www.bloc.jp/barisshee/

2017

22 June 2017

Cafe OTO

23-25 June 2017

Avantgarde Festival

more info

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