Saturday 11 September 2021, 7.30pm
OTO presents a special Yumi Hara retrospective focusing on the past 10 years of her activities, and launch of her second solo album.
Yumi Hara’s compositions have been performed by contemporary classical ensembles such asPianoCircus and the BBC Singers, but she has become increasingly well known as animprovisor and performer in the avant rock, Canterbury and RIO scene since releasing CD 'Dune' with Hugh Hopper in 2008. She has formed bands and projects such as The Artaud Beats (with Geoff Leigh, Chris Cutler, John Greaves), you me & us (with Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler), Jump for Joy! (with Jean-Herve Peron, Zappi, Chris Cutler, Geoff Leigh, Geraldine Swayne), THE WATTS (with Tim Hodgkinson and Chris Cutler) and Half the Sky / LindsayCooper Songbook. She is senior lecturer in music at University of East London.
Chris Cutler has had to withdraw from the Yumi Hara 2-Day Residency at Cafe Oto to self-isolate. We are glad to announce that we've been able to persuade Guy Evans to leap to the rescue. Guy is best known as the drummer for Van Der Graaf Generator. He also played with The Misunderstood, Arthur Brown, Amon Düül 11 and Mother Gong. He is a founder member of Echo City, a band of musician-designers who perform on giant self-made instruments, collectively known as sonic playgrounds. He now regularly plays in the improvising collective, AMM All Stars, whose live performances and xenochronic compositions are broadcast weekly on Resonance FM’s Late Lunch With Out To Lunch. We are all looking forwards very much to working with him this weekend.
SCHEDULE:
- Itako Sisters (Yumi Hara + Atsuko kamura)
- THE WATTS (Yumi Hara, Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler)
- Chloe Herrington solo
- Yumi solo material / Lindsay Cooper Songbook Alone+ / Canterbury Favourites (Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Pierre Chevalier, Guy Harries, Atsuko Kamura, Chloe Herington)
- DJ Marina Organ
Yumi Hara / piano, keyboards, harp, violin, voice (Half the Sky, Lindsay Cooper Songbook, you me & us, Frank Chickens, etc)
Atsuko Kamura / voice, electronics (Polka Dot Fire Brigade, Frank Chickens, Kamura Obscura, etc)
Tim Hodgkinson / clarinet, alto sax, lap steel guitar (Henry Cow, Konk Pack, The Hyperion Ensemble, etc)
Guy Evans / drums (Van Der Graaf Generator)
Chlöe Herington / bassoon, soprano sax, melodica (Knifeworld, Chrome Hoof, VÄLVĒ)
Pierre Chevalier / keyboards (Present, faUSt, Aranis, Univers Zero, Captain Cheese-Beared, etc)
Guy Harries
DJ Marina Organ (The Other Rock Show/Resonance FM)
(Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Pierre Chevalier, Toshiaki Sudoh, Atsuko Kamura, Chloe Herington)
In this set, Yumi and friends will perform a selection of tracks from her new 2nd solo album Naked Orchid (title TBC) and 1st album Statement Heels (2011), Lindsay Cooper compositions, plus Canterbury tunes.
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’. Yumi made a transcription of the piece and recorded it for solo clavichord (now included in MINIATURES2020 double CD). Since then, she has been performing compositions by Lindsay with various formations: Half the Sky, Lindsay Cooper Songbook, duo with Chris Cutler and as solo. This time, due to the uncertain pandemic circumstances, Yumi will perform a selection of Lindsay Cooper compositions in 'piano reduction + additional instruments' format.
Yumi has been performing with so called Canterbury musicians such as Hugh Hopper, Daevid Allen and Dave Sinclair, and revisited classic Canterbury tunes with them from time to time such as 'Hope for Happiness' (with Hugh Hopper as HUMI), 'Dynamite', 'Shipbuilding' (with Daevid Allen and Chris Cutler as you me & us) and 'Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road' (with Tim Hodgkinson and Chris Cutler as THE WATTS) as well as Canterbury enthusiasts among Japanese musicians over the years. Yumi will pick up and perform favourites from her Canterbury repertoire.
Itako Sisters are Yumi Hara (Lindsay Cooper Songbook, THE WATTS, etc) and Atsuko Kamura (Kamura Obscura, Mizutama Shobodan, etc). Both were members of UK based Japanese conceptual pop group Frank Chickens, but never performed together at the same time until 2019 when Kamura stepped in as a substitute singer for Dagmer Krause when Lindsay Cooper Songbook performed at Cafe OTO to celebrate International Women’s Day. Itako Sisters were booked for Resonance FM fundraising event at Cafe OTO in October 2019. They interweave acoustic and electronic sounds together with treated and untreated voices creating mesmerising rituals.
THE WATTS (Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson) were formed to perform at the 25th anniversary event of Sakedelic Space Shuyukan in Oumi Hachiman, one of the most important venues for this kind of music in Japan, in 2017; after that they toured in Japan many times, played in the UK and France, and released the CD ‘Decoherence’. THE WATTS make stuff up as they go along but it seems to have undeniable form. There are songs; of a sort - and there are a lot of unidentifiable sounds, extended techniques, pedal work, preparations…. But still the result seems determinedly organic, contra-virtual and human (with frailties). Toshiaki Sudoh guests regularly when THE WATTS play in Tokyo and nearby cities, but this is his first appearance with THE WATTS outside Japan. THE WATTS with Toshiaki Sudoh's unreleased track will be included as part of ReR Italia 40th Anniversary compilation album due to be out in autumn 2023.
Chloe Herrington (Knifeworld, Chrome Hoof, VÄLVĒ) has been a member of Half the Sky / Lindsay Cooper Songbook since 2016, and her solo sets at their concerts at Cafe OTO were warmly welcomed by the members of audience.
