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Watch Videos Zappanale 2018 Cafe OTO 2017 Tokyo 2015
Lindsay Cooper Songbook/Half the Sky facebook page
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Lindsay Cooper Songbook Tech Spec Stage Plan
     Half the Sky Tech Spec Stage Plan


Forthcoming dates 2020:
Yumi Hara will be playing a selection of Lindsay Cooper compositions
during her mini Japan tour 18-20 July.
20 July gig will be live streamed worldwide from Akihabara GOODMAN, Tokyo,
due to be closed down in mid-August.
As it is a no-live-audience, free-to-view live streaming, donations are most welcome.
More about the gig and how to donate here




Forthcoming dates 2021:
*Yumi Hara 2nd solo album launch + retrospective 2-day residency at Cafe OTO, 27-28 June 2020 has now been postponed exactly one year to 26-27 June 2021. Yumi will be playing a selection of Lindsay Cooper compositions with Toshiaki Sudoh and Chris Cutler (+possibly more, hopefully)
THE WATTS, Jump for Joy!, Itako Sisters, Sonic Rituals duo, Lindsay Cooper Songbook Alone+, Yumi Solo materials+Canterbury Favorites, DJ Marina Organ (The Other Rock Show/Resonance FM) and DJ Kyle McCallum (Extra Normal Records/Contra Pop) are confirmed.

2019:
Lindsay Cooper Songbook Celebrates International Women’s Day 2019

The Lindsay Cooper Songbook group regret to announce that for the forthcoming concerts in March, Dagmar will not be performing with us. This is due to a serious back condition from which she needs more time to recover. Stepping in as lead vocalist is Atsuko Kamura, whose work we have admired for many years. Kamura began in music in the 80's as vocalist and bassist of Mizutama Shobodan (Polka Dot Fire Brigade), the first feminist punk band in Japan. She toured the US with Tenko as the Honeymoons, joined the Frank Chickens in London, and the anglo-Japanese jazz progressive rock band Setsubun Bean Unit, and initiated projects such as I am a Kamura, with Robert Storey, and Kamura Obscura. Throughout her work she has maintained clear political, feminist, and ecological positions, campaigning recently against nuclear power, following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Yumi Hara (p, keys, harp, vo)
Chris Cutler (dr)
Chloe Herington (bassoon, soprano sax, melodica)
Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet, alto sax)
Atsuko Kamura (vo)
Mitsuru Nasuno (bass)

7 March 2019: Free Range, Garage Coffee @ Fruitworks, 1-2 Jewry Lane, Canterbury, CT1 2NR

8 March 2019: International Women's Day, Cafe OTO, London, UK BUY TICKETS

9 March 2019: Bonn, Germany 20.00 Uhr
Dialograum Kreuzung an St. Helena Bornheimer Straße 130, 53119 Bonn http://www.kreuzung-helena.de/home/

10 March 2019: Münster, Germany
Theater im Pumpenhaus Gartenstraße 123, 48147 Münster https://www.pumpenhaus.de/


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

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

'...Each sound they played was polished to the extent that no other sounds would have been suitable to play Lindsay Cooper's music’
'I was extremely impressed by this superior ensemble which recreated Lindsay Cooper's music in the best form imaginable. Osamu Sakamoto (EURO ROCK PRESS)

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, News From Babel and Music for Films, 1978 – 1982.

ENSEMBLE:

Yumi Hara: arrangements, piano, keyboards, lever harp, voice (The Artaud Beats, you me & us, Jump for Joy!, THE WATTS etc)

Chlöe Herington: bassoon, soprano sax, melodica (Knifeworld, Chrome Hoof, VÄLVĒ)

Dagmar Krause: voice (Henry Cow, News from Babel, Slapp Happy etc)

Nasuno Mitsuru: bass (Korekyojinn, Altered States etc)

Tim Hodgkinson: clarinet, alto sax (Henry Cow, The Work, THE WATTS etc)

Chris Cutler: drums (Henry Cow, News from Babel, The Artaud Beats, THE WATTS etc)

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


 

photos and audio/video recordings policy for Half the Sky Performances

Members of audience are allowed to take photos and make audio/video recordings as long as they:

-don't use flash and make any shutter sound
-don't cause any disturbances for other members of audience (i.e., no standing and walking around)
-give us raw data immediately and allow us to use the data whatever we like for no charges
-don't sell
-if they want to upload on the internet, they must let us know and if we don't like, they must take them down

 

Half the Sky performance on 22 June 2018 was supported by Lottery grant award and Arts Council England


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

 

 

NEWS:

18 Dec 2018

Lindsay Cooper Songbook will celebrate International Women's Day 2019:

o7.03.19, Free Range, Canterbury
08.03.19, Cafe OTO, London
09.03.19: Bonn, Germany
10.03.19: TBC


20 March 2017

 

Half the Sky concert review, 2 Dec 2016, Akihabara GOODMAN, by Osamu Sakamoto, EURO ROCK PRESS (vol. 72, Feb 2017 issue), photo by Kunimitsu Tsuburai

 

 

18 March 2017

 

Half the Sky will be playing at Cafe OTO, London, on 22 June 2017

Buy tickets HERE

And Avantgarde Festival, Schiphorst, Germany, 23-25 June 2017

Buy tickets HERE

 

27 Jan 2017

Half the Sky will be playing at Cafe OTO, London, on 22 June 2017

More dates to be announced in due course...we even have a date in 2018!!

 

4 Oct 2016

Half the Sky Tokyo dates announced:

 

30 Nov 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN Half the Sky: Music of Lindsay Cooper with special guest
1 Dec 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN Half the Sky: Music of Lindsay Cooper with special guest
2 Dec 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN Half the Sky: Music of Lindsay Cooper with special guest

4 Dec 2016, Tokyo Sendagi BAR ISSHEE Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara, Music of Lindsay Cooper workshop

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 Herington (bassoon, s. sax, melodica)

 

 

21 March 2016

Half the Sky artist page on RIO 2016 website is now live: http://www.rocktime.org/rio/index.php/en/artists/half-the-sky

 

21 January 2016

Half the Sky will be playing at Rock in Opposition festival, carmaux, France, on Sun 18 Sept 2016

 

 

Lindsay Cooper Songbook/Half the Sky list of gigs

 

<2018>


16 June 2018 Cafe OTO, London, UK

with DJ Marina Organ (The Other Rock Show)
Opening acts: John Greaves solo (voice, piano), Chloe Herington solo (bassoon, electronics) THE WATTS (Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara, UK debut performance)
Lindsay Cooper Songbook: Yumi Hara (p, keys, harp, vo), Chris Cutler (dr), Chloe Herington (bassoon, soprano sax, melodica), Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet, alto sax), John Greaves (bass, vo)

21 July 2018 Zappanale, Bad Doberan, near Hamburg, Germany

Lindsay Cooper Songbook: Yumi Hara (p, keys, harp, vo), Chris Cutler (dr), Chloe Herington (bassoon, soprano sax, melodica), Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet, alto sax), John Greaves (bass, vo), Dagmar Krause (vo)

<2017>


22 June 2017, Cafe OTO, London, 19.30 https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/half-the-sky/

Half the Sky (Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Miwazow, Wataru Okuma, Chloe Herington, Mitsuru Nasuno, Dagmar Krause) <Supported by Arts Council England>

 

23-25 June 2017, Avantgarde Festival, Schiphorst, Germany http://www.avantgardefestival.de/TICKETS.html

Half the Sky (Yumi Hara, Chris Cutler, Miwazow, Wataru Okuma, Chloe Herington, Mitsuru Nasuno, Dagmar Krause)


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 Herington (bassoon, s. sax, melodica)


<JAPAN TOUR 2016>

30 Nov 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN

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

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

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

 

1 Dec 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN

programme:

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

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)]

 

2 Dec 2016, Tokyo AKihabara GOODMAN

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 Mirabilis

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)]

 

4 Dec 2016, Tokyo Sendagi BAR ISSHEE Chris Cutler & Yumi Hara, Music of Lindsay Cooper workshop, talk & performance

workshopped pieces: Half the Sky, Anno Mirabilis

talk & performance programme:

Auschwitz/Babel, Black Gold, Waited/Justice, Anno Mirabilis, Half the Sky, Slice

 

 

<Rock in Opposition Festival 2016>

18 Sept 2016 MAISON DE LA MUSIQUE, CAP' DECOUVERTE, LE GARRIC, 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 Herington (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 Mirabilis

 

<JAPAN TOUR 2015>

3 Dec 2015 Osaka Ganz toi toi toi

4 Dec 2015 Nagoya TOKUZO

5 Dec 2015 Tokyo Akihabara GOODMAN

personnel: Yumi Hara (arr, p, keyboard, 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 Mirabilis

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

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2018