The Journey Itself Is Home

We arrived here on Friday after a splendid stay in Hong Kong. Our concert there was very good, I think, though we did have some technical problems. Something happened during Hyperballad that wasn’t supposed to happen, and the electronic harpsichord kind of died on me early in the evening. Nonetheless we were all in high spirits and the audience was GREAT.

Yesterday was interesting. In the morning I went to the place where my grandfather spent his last years. And in the afternoon I hooked up with Björk and a few others of the group to see a Chinese opera.

In the beginning the screeching falsetto of the singers made us all have a laughing fit. But then the monotony of the music started to have a dulling effect on us that was strangely soothing.

After some time had passed though, it was no longer soothing.

The last hour was pure hell!

I suppose many Chinese persons would say the same thing about some (maybe all) modern Western operas…

Anyway, tonight is our last concert for a while. Tomorrow we will go home for a vacation - we look so much forward to it!

I took this one today. It shows a woman praying in front of a Taoist (?) shrine, more or less right on the street.

I had fun in Hong Kong today. In the morning I went with a friend to SoHo (which here means “South of Hollywood Road” - yes, they have a road by that name) and had a fantastic meal. My friend, who has lived here for more than a decade, told me that the food was of Szechuan origin, which is a province in China. The Chinese food found in the West is usually Cantonese, i.e. from the Guangdong Province. The Cantonese food is more mellow than the Sezchuan, which is spicier and has a richer taste.

After lunch I walked back to the hotel, enjoying the sights of the city and savouring the somewhat decadent atmosphere. Outside the entrance I met a few of the brass girls and told them I had just had a blissful taste of Sezchuan cuisine.

One of them misheard me and thought I had said “sexual cuisine”.

Alas, no such luck.

Excellent concert in Osaka tonight. We performed Undo from Vespertine. Don’t remember having done that live before, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t do it. I just don’t remember it.

I think the harpsichord gave it a magical aura. The brass was also powerful, as was the rest of the gang.

The capacity of the house was 16000 I believe. As far as I could see it was full.

This concludes our Japanese tour. Tomorrow: China!!!

My grandfather was Chinese, he spent his last years in Shanghai. Can’t wait to see where he lived!

Other terms are:

Consulting your ASStrological chart
Dropping the kids off at the pool
Full moon over troubled waters

The list is seemingly endless.

Doing it with a high-tech gadget such as the one found in my hotel room in Osaka…

Pure delight!

I saw someone say somewhere on this website that if Björk were a religion, he would convert.

What kind of a religion would that be? And what kind of a church?

A Björch?

n69n wrote (and I totally agree):

“i always think of the differences between the tokyo & nyc subways & how they reflect their cultures.

“usa = marilyn monroe
japan = audrey hepburn

“i liked japan very much. it was the first time i ever felt respected as an artist.

“in america, if you say you are an artist, you might as well be saying “i am a homeless bum!”
but in japan, even if they are just being polite, people are interested in your work.

“there is no value on ettiquette or art in america.

“in tokyo, people would leave their bikes unlocked outside the subway station. i asked my friend, “arent they afraid of someone stealing their bikes?”

“he looked bewildered by the question, and said, “no one would steal another person’s bike, because then someone would steal *their* bike.”

“like, the karma was so instant & obvious, no one would even think of going there.”

Our concert tonight in Tokyo was definitely a success. The place was crammed, ten thousand people. A very sophisticated audience, almost like it was listening to Beethoven’s Ninth.

That’s neither good nor bad, it is just an observation. The Japanese are so well behaved. Everything is orderly and perfectly organized, you could almost call it anal. I found it strange at first, but now it gives me a feeling of security.

I played on an acoustic harpsichord. Same will apply to the other two concerts in Japan, and also for the entire UK leg. The sound from a real harpsichord is more authentic and charming.

Many people wear white, surgical-looking masks in the street, and there were several in the audience tonight. The mask is worn when you are mildly sick and have a cough, but don’t want to infect others. It was funny seeing masked people swaying to the music. Surgeons on acid - oh yeah!

We played two encores, Oceania and Declare. As we were going on stage for the encores, I said to Björk: “Let’s play Waterloo!”

Now, wouldn’t that be fun?

I forgot: The new version of the song I mentioned below is Wanderlust. It is a combination of the Matthew Herbert mix and the concert version we have been performing regularly. I think it still needs a bit of work as some elements of it sound slightly dissonant (unintentionally so) to my ears when I play the new organ part.

But then what I hear is not always what the audience hears…

We also have a great new version of Innocence which I think is TOTALLY cool. It is a lot darker, almost sinister. Not very innocent really, it is in fact bloody sinful!

A song for a Scorpio lady.

We had a fine show yesterday. Did Vertebrae, which I don’t recall having done before. And we ALMOST played Where Is the Line. Not entirely sure why that was dropped from the setlist at the last moment.

Apparently the Olympic Hall in Seoul, where the concert took place, has wonderful acoustics - it is completely dead, which means Björk had perfect control over how things sounded. So fragile songs like Vertebrae, Aurora and the like could at last be performed.

And now we go to Tokyo!