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YUMI
HARA. THE ARTAUD BEATS.
JUMP FOR JOY. YOUME&US
HALF
THE SKY & the LINDSAY COOPER SONGBOOK
YUMI
HARA.
THE
ARTAUD BEATS.
The
Artaud Beats: John Greaves, Geogff Leigh, CC,
Yumi Hara
I
first met Yumi at Jean Herve Peron’s Avantgarde
Festival, in 2009. John Greaves and I, who
were also there playing slaphappy material with
Dagmar and the Peter
Blegvad trio, wound up in a
scratch quartet with Geoff Leigh and Yumi - at
Geoff's suggestion -
which was invited on the spot to play at the Nodutgang
Festival the next year, in Norway.
Since we appeared to be a group we needed a
name, which turned out to be The
Artaud Beats. Later, Yumi and I fell into
a sometime trio with Daevid
Allen, which he called You,
me & Us, which did
a number of concerts in London and toured
in Japan - to Okinawa and beyond.
YOUME&US
Youmeandus:
CC, Yumi Hara, Daevid Allen
JUMP
FOR JOY!
Jump for
Joy!:Geraldine, CC, Jean-Herve Peron,Geoff Leigh,
Werner Diermier, Yumi Hara
You
Me & Us were scheduled to play at
Jean-Herve Peron's Avantgarde
Festival in 2014 but shortly beforehand
it became clear that Daevid would be unable to
make it (he was too unwell). Jean-Herve proposed
that Yumi and I join most of what was then Faust
and play as Jump
for Joy! This led directly to an
invitation to play again at an amusement park in
Goteborg, and later at the RIO Festival in
Carmaux. Occasional concerts still pop up now and
then.
THE
WATTS
The
Watts: Yumi Hara, CC, Tim Hodgkinson
Presently,
there’s The
Watts – another trio, this one with Tim
Hodgkinson, that so far has a
couple of Japanese tours and a scattering of
European concerts under its belt. Tim is also
part of Half
the Sky, now The
Lindsay Copper Songbook - an ensemble
formed by Yumi to play Lindsay’s music. The LCS
has both Japanese and European editions with
have slightly varying personnel.
HALF THE SKY and THE LINDSAY COOPER SONGBOOK
From
the Lindsay Cooper Memorial concert
at the Barbican: Tim Hodgkinson, Alfred
Harth, Michel Berckmans, Anne-Marie Roelofs
In
2014
I convened the former members of Henry
Cow, News
From Babel, Oh
Moscow and
Music for Films (viz
Michel Berckmans, Fred Frith, John Greaves,
Alfred Harth, Tim Hodgkinson, Dagmar Krause,
Phil Minton, Zeena Parkins, Sally
Potter,Anne-Marie Roeloffs, Veryan Weston
and myself) to perform a memorial
programme at the
Barbican Theatre
in London, to celebrate the life and work of Lindsay
Cooper who,
in 2012. had
finally been overwhelmed
by the accumulated effects of Multiple
Sclerosis. We also performed at the Huddersfield
International
Music Festival and the Teatro
Diego Fabbri,
in Forli. These concerts inspired Yumi to put
together
a
band,
in Japan,
to
play Lindsays music
there,
which
she called Half
the Sky. The original line-up was Yumi
Hara (keyboards, harp, voice,
Keiko Komori (bassclarinet,
soprano sax), Miwazow
(koto, singing, ching-dong percussion), Nasuno
Mitsuru, bass,
Yuriko Mukoujima
(violin, melodica, keyboard), Wataru
Okhuma (alto sax, clarinet) and
myself. We toured with a programme consisting
mainly of Lindsay compositions for Henry
Cow and News
from Babel.
Half
the Sky original lineup:
Yumi
Hara,
Miwazow, Wataru
Okhuma, CC, Keiko
Komori ,
Yuriko
Mukoujima, Nasuno
Mitsuru,
The following year we played at the RIO
Festival in Carmaux and there was a
second tour in Japan, this time with Chloe
Herington playing bassoon and soprano
sax and without Keiko and Yumiko. For
performances in Europe John Greaves, Tim
Hodgikinson and Dagmar Krause joined (in place
of Nasuno, Wataru and Miwazow, since
transcontinental flights make these sorts of
bands virtually impossible to tour) and this
formation took the name of The
Lindsay Cooper Songbook.
The
Lindsay Cooper Songbook: CC, Dagmar
Krause,Chloe Herington,(Jean-Herve Peron -
not in the band, he and Carina were letting
us use their mill to rehearse in), Nasuno
Mitsuru,Yumi Hara, Miwazow,
Wataru Okhuma
WHAT'S IN A NAME
'Women hold up half
the sky' MAO TSE TUNG, which lay behind Lindsay's
Half the Sky, on Henry
Cow's Western
Culture.
ON
RECORD
The
ARTAUD BEATS
NODUTGANG, BODO, 2011
B 007, 2012
LOGOS Bar 004
Limited
Edition 'Archive Box' set of 8CDRs and 4 DVDRs,
2012 Japan.
YOUME&US
POESY AT PLAY BAR
RAIN CHEQUE (DVD) BAR 008
JUMP
FOR JOY
BAT PULLOVER
BAR 005, 2017
KEEPING SCORE
OR01, 2018
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