Sakamoto Tour Japan '05

In performance with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Skuli Sverrisson, Christian Fennesz, Keigo 'Cornelius' Oyamada.
my wife (gobi) and son (jude) both accompanied me on the tour.

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 (photo by steve)

Fish

fishtanks are often on view outside restaurants offering the freshest of bites (photo by gobi)

Japanese dining

japanese dining... presentation was everything (photo by gobi)

Door

the capitol tokyu hotel 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 managed 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 at the icc with no preparation, aside from incorporating a monologue by laurie anderson. This performance coincided with laurie's exhibit.

(photos courtesy of Epiphanyworks)

awaiting the arrival of the bullet train

oppressive summer heat.. thankfully there are air conditioned spaces on the platform (photo by gobi)

patiently…

…awaiting soundcheck to commence (photo by kiyo)

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

(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 making the most of our sanctuary... a prefab dressing room in a huge park hosting the 'rockin on' festival just outside tokyo (photo by steve)

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 (photo by steve)

the same late bar in fukuoka...

(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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