Meet The Sun: Noz Reveals Secrets Behind Our New Single

“I couldn’t speak, but I could play.”
“演奏はできる。だけど話せない、だからなんだ、いいんだ、演奏できるから、と開き直った。”

– Nozomi Omote

Tom writes:

Meet the Sun, our new single arriving 25 January, is about life-long adventures and challenges. 

Noz’s entire adult life has been an adventure.  For the first time ever, she recounts that story for you, and you’ll understand our song, Meet the Sun

新曲シングル「太陽との出会い」は1月25日にリリース予定。ノズの人生冒険が詰まってる曲よ。今回初めてノズの生い立ちをブログに書き下ろしたので、読んでみてね。そしたら新曲「太陽との出会い」のこと、もっとわかってもらえるかも!

N.b. Noz wrote the following in Japanese, and I’ve helped her with an English version of that text (I don’t read Japanese but we have wonderous internet translation services). The photography in this post is all by Noz, on location in Japan (Tokyo/Kanazawa/Kyoto).

2022/12/30 on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kanazawa:

Noz writes:

Japanese scenery streams past in the blink of an eye, as I write this from the Shinkansen (a high-speed train).  I’ve come back to Japan after such a long time.  Like the scene flashing past the train window, these last three days have sped by, and I’ve seen friends I’ve missed for so long.  My brother, his family, and old friends from my time in high school and language school. Sightseeing and shopping round out the experience (shopping in Japan is very important when you live abroad; you can’t get such well-priced reading glasses and cosmetics in Australia). 

今、北陸新幹線の中から書いている。東京に、いや日本には久しぶりに1人で帰ってきた。久しぶりの友達や兄家族の再会、観光や必要な買い物(メガネや、日本でか買えない化粧品など)をしてあっという間の三日間だった。帰国してやはり思うことは、日本人で日本語は話せるけれども、心はオーストラリア人ですね。もうすでに少しブリスベン生活が恋しい。東京は人の多さにも驚いたが、みんなクタクタになるまで働いてるのがヒシヒシと感じる。こんなに働いてこの人達は幸せなのだろうか。

Coming back, I had an important realisation.  I am Japanese, I speak Japanese, but I must admit, deep down, I am now Australian.  I’ve only been back in Japan a few days and I’m already missing Brisbane.  When, and how did this happen?  There are so many people in Tokyo.  Is everyone working until they drop?  Are they happy?  Brisbane is somehow. . . different. . . it suits me.

I hesitated for a year, or maybe even longer, before deciding to go to Australia.  Back in the early 2000s I was a student in the Faculty of Education at Kanazawa University.  I wanted to be a teacher because I liked the idea of bossing students around. After completing my education degree, I could have chosen to take a teacher registration exam. But by that time, I had decided in my heart to follow a different path.  In my core, I knew I needed to play.  I had to build my world accordingly.  It was at this time, in Kanazawa, that I met my amazing percussion mentor, Tom O’Kelly. Tom is a well-known percussionist, he was a principal timpanist in Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa for many years, played as a soloist with many orchestras, and these days owns the biggest percussion shop in Brisbane.  Tom helped me to make my mind up:  In 2003 I would travel to Brisbane, Australia, to study percussion at the Queensland Conservatorium.

It was not easy.  My compulsory English education from Japan turned out to be the most meagre preparation for life in an English-speaking country.  I felt like I couldn’t speak or understand it at all.  This crushed me.  My pride was completely shattered.  Few people knew how I felt.  I managed to conquer this ordeal by practicing.  Day after day, I practiced until the Conservatorium closed at midnight.  Performing, and learning about performing, with an intensive practice regime was my essence.  I learned the joy of it.  The love of performance kept me strong.  My English improved slower than it might have, as every waking moment was dedicated to playing.

私がオーストラリアに行くと決めたのは2002年ごろ。一年かけて、いやもっと長かったかもしれない、とにかく長い間オーストラリアに行こうかどうか迷った。私はその頃国立大学で教育学部の学生の身。偉そうにするのが好きで学校の教師になりたかったのだが、いざ学校の教師になれそうになると(いや、教員試験はすごく厳しくてそれには手を出してない)やはり自分はどれだけ音楽が好きか、演奏するのが好きかを心の底から感じるようになり、それができる環境にいかに行こうか熟慮してみた。その時にブリスベンの今では大きな打楽器専門店のオーナーであり、私の師匠であるトム オケーリー先生と金沢で出会い、ブリスベンでの勉強の道を薦めてくださり、迷いに迷ってブリスベンに行くことにしたのが2003年。

英語は義務教育で習ったものの全然話せず聞けず、犬以下の気持ちになりながら、一生懸命語学学校に通って、英語の大学に入るための試験勉強も必死でして、何度も失敗したりした。その後、なんとか無事にクイーンズランド音楽院にて打楽器演奏の勉強ができることになる。毎日大学が夜閉まるまでずっと練習して、演奏するのことの楽しさを実感しながら学生時代を過ごした。英語は楽器の練習しすぎで、あまり人と話すことなくあまり上達はしなかったけど、演奏に関してはたくさん学べた。

Not everyone thought my decision to travel to Australia was sensible, and I got the impression they believed I’d be safer in Japan.  They didn’t understand this urge, and having an adventure was a risky choice.  On the other hand, I had some encouragement from trusting people who seemed to understand that risk may be rewarded, and living in a new country offers unique experiences that not everyone anticipates.  I am forever grateful for those people who encouraged me, because moving to Australia was the best thing I could have done.  In English, I am freed from honorifics, and everyone speaks with equality. It’s as if a big wall is removed.  But more importantly, it made me a resourceful person.  I developed my mind, I became wiser, and I started to live my own way.  In Australia at the age of 23 it was like I was beginning again, as a baby.  That makes me a nineteen-year-old in 2023!

During my first years in Australia I often felt uneasy and frequently considered returning to Japan.  What changed is that I made friends, and these were deep connections.  In time, I got married and began a family.  Brisbane is my place now. 

オーストラリアに来ると決めたとき、やはり安全に国内での勉強の方がいいのでは、と言う人もいたし、日本では音楽留学をオーストラリアでするというと、オーストリアと聞き間違えたかと言われるほど、みんなには理解されないことも多々あった。だけど、やはり海外がいい、海外に行っていろいろと学んできた方がいいと言って後押ししてくれた大人たちも多数いて、若くて何も自分で決めれず、殻に閉じこもり気味の私をそんな大人たちは心から応援してくれた。今ではその頃応援してくださった方々に心から感謝。あの選択は間違いではなかった。英語によって、敬語から解放されて、皆平等に話せて、大きな壁がひとつ取れ、それに加えて、「人に並べ、出る杭は打たれる」と教わった日本の義務教育と違い、オーストラリアで初めて自らの頭と知恵を使いながら自分なりの生き方を始めた。だから23歳でまた赤ちゃんからやり直した気分。だから今はまだ19歳。慣れて居心地の良い壁を自ら覚悟して蹴り破り進んだ道は、最初は不安でなんども帰りたくなったけど、長い年月をかけ、だんだんと絆の深い友達、そして自分の家族もでき、今では、ブリスベンが私の故郷。守護霊バンドのトム グリーンとの出会いは、よりこの故郷への絆を深めた。

2022/1/05 Kanazawa:

A friend from high school died last night.  On arriving in Japan I had tried to contact her; she usually responds so quickly, but this time she was silent, and I immediately became worried.  She was suffering from advanced, terminal cancer. But I felt extremely lucky I was able to say goodbye at the wake even though my stay in Kanazawa was so short.

She was in the brass band in high school and was that person who never stopped smiling.  During my undergrad, I was tutoring percussion at the school (and remained there until I moved to Australia). She was back at the school, registered, teaching ancient Japanese language. Her eyes still smiled and sparkled, and her gift of smiling was now woven into her teaching.  Later, with the advanced cancer she could no longer fill this most treasured role, as her body became gradually weaker.  She wanted to live.  That battle is over now.  She was so full of smiles. She wouldn’t be happy to see everyone cry, so I’ll keep smiling for her. But it’s always hard to face death.

高校の時の友達が昨夜亡くなった。彼女に実家帰りしてから連絡をとってみたが、いつもは返事が速いのになかなか来ない。嫌な予感はしていた。進行性の癌だった。私がこちらにいるのは短い期間にも関わらず、お通夜でお別れを言えるのは奇跡的である、そこに感謝。

彼女は高校時代吹奏楽部で一緒だった。いつも笑顔が絶えない子だった。そこの吹奏楽部の打楽器を教えに大学終わった頃もいつも行ってきたが、その子は高校教諭として戻っていた。目をキラキラさせながらテキパキと先生をする姿も見た。そんな彼女は進行性癌のせいで、好きな教職もできなくなり、身体もどんどん蝕まれ、今までのようにできない葛藤と戦っていた。そして、とにかく生きたい、と言っていた。闘病も終わり、ついに人生が終わった。笑顔でいっぱいだった彼女はきっとみんながシクシク泣くのは見たくないだろうと、なるべく笑顔でいたいけど、やはり死に直面するのは辛い。

What would my life have been like, had I decided to stay in Japan?  I recall now how clueless I was in Brisbane.  I sat in the English classes at a language school, barely understanding a single word.  My rudimentary skills acquired in Japan meant that I was plunked into the middle range when I really wanted to be placed at the beginner level.  That’s how it was for me, starting off in this new place.  The IELTS test is an English test you need to do to enter university in Australia.  I failed it over and over again, until I finally scraped through and entered graduate studies.  I’ve lost track of how many times I needed to renew my Visa!

 

オーストラリアのブリスベンに着いてからの話を書きたいと思う。語学学校では、英語で何言っているかさっぱりわからなかった。しかし長年の日本での義務教育で培った使えない英語力のせいで、中途半端に英語が読めて書けた。それで中級レベルに入れられた。初級レベルから始めたかったから、すごく困った。全く語学学校の先生が何を言っているのかわからなかった。私はそんなところから異国で生活を始めた。何度も大学に入るための試験で必要点を取るのに失敗し、高いお金を払って何度も挑戦した。ギリギリの点でようやく大学院での勉強を始められるようになった。ビザの更新も毎回大変だったのを覚えている。

Throughout my academic career, I fostered a dream of playing in a professional orchestra.  If you work hard enough, dreams have a way of coming true, and eventually I found myself with a pro orchestral gig.  At first I thought, “this is it”, but life has a way of presenting new challenges at every step.  Sure, to start with I had a lot of work, and this certainly helped financially, but the reality is, sessional work for a musician is sporadic.  Sometimes, it dried up altogether. 

 勉強している間に、こちらのプロのオーケストラで少しずつ演奏できればいいなと思っていたら、それも実現していった。たくさん仕事もいただき、生活費も少し助かった。勉強が終わり、オーケストラでのエキストラの仕事を続けた。その時期が精神的に大変だった。仕事がたくさんの時もあれば、全くない時期もあり、仕事として頼るには不定期すぎた。他の職業を本気で探した。だけど結局見つからなかった。それも辛かった。私は音楽しかできないんだ。なんて役立たず、と自分をたくさん責めた。それでもなんとか音楽を続けた。

And even when I was gigging there were problems.  I was told I must play in a very particular fashion, and when I didn’t the leader of our section would stare me down with a horrible look.  The atmosphere in the orchestra made me distrustful. In time, I found myself looking for another job outside of music or wanting to return to my parents back in Japan.  I had dedicated my life to this, and now found myself needing to get out.  Needless to say, this was a difficult time for me mentally.  Writing this now, in Japan, I recall that there was a time, in Australia, when I lived in despair.  Even with a good husband (Nick) and beautiful children, and despite years of dedication as a musician, I blamed myself for everything; for being useless.  And, somehow, I kept going.  I put the orchestra behind me; it turns out that I’m a strong person, and I’ve been able to forge a productive musical journey as an independent musician.

It must have been during that dark period that I met Tom (the other part of Shugorei).  The funny thing is that we crossed paths decades before we were friends, as I was playing his compositions long before we had spoken much.  Much later, on another occasion when I played his music, we came to chat and finally became friends [Tom interjecting: it’s almost impossible to meet Noz and not want to be friends with her].  By and by, Shugorei came to be.  When I tell my Japanese friends that Shugorei is the name of the music group, they always say, “what?  Guardian Spirit?  The spirit that protects you?” [Tom interjecting:  there’s a curious aspect of the translation here, because in English, both the sound of the word Shugorei, as well as the concept of it, feels cool, whereas in Japanese I’ve come to understand there’s a kind of spooky characteristic to it, which Noz was initially worried might put people off, but she seems to have come to like it, in spite of curious reactions].  I like the name now, very much, because it occurs to me that what we have is, in a way, sacred.  We made our own magic, just by using that word.  The word itself brought the Guardian Spirit to us.  I’ll always be grateful for that.

オーケストラ内でも、リーダーが思うように演奏されないとすごい形相で睨みつけてきたり、失敗したら次仕事はないかも、と毎回不安に思いながら演奏したり、そんなのが長年続いていたのでオーケストラでの活動にも不信感を抱くようになる。それをやめたら本当に音楽活動以外のものを探さないとダメなのに、それでも見つからない。前から個人的にお付き合いしてる人も何度も振ろうとしてくるし、一時期ブリスベンから実家へにもつをまとめて帰ろうと本気で思った時期もあった。絶望的に暮らしていた時期があったとは、これを書いていて久しぶりに思い出した。今は幸せなので、ここまで来れてよかったと思っている。あの後、家族もできて、それも苦労した。今は大丈夫。あのオーケストラでの不安な日々も過ごすことはない。自分で別の仕事を見つけられるくらい強くなれた。

トムと出会ったのはきっとあの暗黒期。そのころは別にトムと個人的に話したわけではない。彼の曲を演奏しただけ。そのずっと後にまた彼の曲を演奏する機会があり、そこでちらほら話をして交友するようになる。そこからどんどん話が進み、守護霊が生まれた。守護霊って音楽グループ名だと日本人の友達に言うといつも、えー!?あの守護霊?守ってくれる霊のあの守護霊?って言って驚くけど、この活動を始めてようやく幸せになり出したから、このトムとの守護霊活動は、神聖的なにかがあるのではないかとふと思う。私にはとてもありがたい存在である。

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New Single -Meet the Sun- Featuring Shêm Allen- Out Soon

[Written by Tom].

We’ve been busy. Our new tune, Meet the Sun, featuring the magnificent Shêm Allen, is due for release imminently: 25 January 2023 (yep, really soon!). It’s being delivered to you by none other than our very good friends at 4000 Records. Only a couple of weeks following that, we’ve got a special treat for you, with a music video for that same song. Who even makes music videos in 2023? We do!

This song is about taking risks. Artists do crazy things, like when a young lady moves from her country of birth to an entirely new continent, to find new friends and build a new family, and following a dream. But Nozomi is going to tell you about that in our next blog post, written during her most recent visit to Japan, her original home. And this song continues our tradition of bilingual lyrics – thanks to Noz and the help of Japanese-speaking friends, Paul and Tamiko Endo-Williams, our single is delivered with English and Japanese sections.

Like all our music, Meet the Sun features electronics and percussion, which results in a hybrid texture and sound that is uniquely Shugorei. Nozomi, once again, is in charge of a staggering battery of hittable apparatuses, while I continue to push my craft in composing, sampling and synthesis. But unique to this production is the contribution of Shêm Allen, whose soulful delivery makes this song completely distinct amongst our output.

As he begins, he moves into another world, crossing that boundary that many great performers do, to become separate from our immediate reality, and being transfigured into a new being. While still that person Shêm, he is now, somehow, a bigger human.

I have heard Shêm’s recordings and thought them astounding. But it wasn’t until quite recently that I had the privilege of witnessing his live performance and understood the depth of his artistry. Only a few short weeks ago, Shugorei supported Nonsemble for their album launch. Noz and I were delighted to see Nonsemble perform; they were tight, animated, electric and enthralling (you really should go check out their album Archaeopteryx). I was spellbound. Shêm joined them on stage for one song. (By the way, if you want to hear Nonesemble and Shêm, there is this incredible work called Bricks.)

Immediately after that show we agreed to collaborate. We knew it would work, straight away. I started working on a song immediately. Shêm came over to the studio and laid it all down inside two hours. It was as I imagined, except better. He has this sensitivity which is his own and no one else’s. It’s something to do with an honesty. . . maybe a little of the real world. . . and, I don’t know, but some hurt . . . that comes through for me. But I’d let him write about that, and I’ll hope that you listen.

Adding a layer of splendour are our friends, Camille and Dan from Black Square Quartet. I can’t resist a little counterpoint, even in a pop tune. Is it pop? What is pop? What is music? Lol. You tell me; the older I get, the more I do, the less I know. What I do know is these two have gifted us the most sumptuous layers of creamy strings.

Before our release we’re going to offer you a few little teasers, and more for you to understand this work. Noz will be next in supplying a blog post, written during her time in Japan (she’s there right now!). Stay tuned for more.

We’re taking this opportunity to start up a mailing list. If you want, just enter your email. This is purely to get you info about new releases and gigs. We won’t spam it though. If you sign up you’ll get an email from us no more often than every few months – only important stuff that we figure you wanna know about, like a reminder about our new tune.

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Shugorei’s New Single: Meet the Sun feat. Shêm Allen

Guardian Spirit

In the second half of 2022, we’re working toward some big things. As of early September 2022, we’ve already played for Jungle Love Festival and Brisbane Festival. In October this year, we’re due to play at Port Fairy Spring Music Festival in Victoria. And in the closing months of 2022, we’re going to bring you all-new recordings from an all-new album.

Unlike last time, we’re going to introduce this next album in stages. This will involve periodically releasing its music, so you’ll be able to enjoy it even during the process of its development. Our first single from this album is called Carrying The Fire (yes, this is a reference to The Road, by Cormac Mccarthy!).

Our new album, like the last one, is ripe with symbolism and reverence for nature, grounded in lore, emanating mystique and a catalyst for imagined dances and imagined worlds. It’s darker in parts, it’s changed in parts, and it’s considerably longer. As well as our core duo (Tom and Nozomi) it involves collaborations with singers and instrumentalists, including an entire string quartet. More on this soon (we can’t wait to introduce you to our collaborators). We really hope you are looking forward to it.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Port Fairy for the festival (see link above), you will get to hear some of this all-new material before anyone else on earth. We will be playing there, on stage with Black Square Quartet as part of a 90 minute feast for the ears.

Regardless of your travels during October, stay tuned. We’ve got so much music to get to you!

Imagery: These photos were taking during Brisbane Festival’s Art Boat Cruise, and the installation visible in these shots is called The Spheres by internationally renowned visual artist Lindy Lee. 

see you this sunday!!!

Hi Shugorei friends, sorry for not posting the blog much.. hello from Noz.

Shugorei will be playing for the 2nd birthday celebrations of our amazing record label, 4000 Records on Sunday 26th September.

2nd birthday celebrations – 4000 Records

At The Brightside Brisbane (27 Warner Street Fortitude Valley, QLD)

Presale Tickets: $30 + BF

Door Tickets: $40

Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/…/4000-records-turns-2…

13:00 Doors

13:00 Traditional Jumbling Tower [improv jam w/ Joel, James and Henry]

13:40 Aren’t

14:10 Lite Fails

14:40 Edith Thomas Furey

15:10 Adele & The Chandeliers

15:40 Start Together

16:20 Fingerless

17:00 Edgar Hurley

17:40 Cloud Tangle (w/ band)

18:20 Local Authority

19:00 Coalfalls

19:40 Shugorei (expanded format)

20:20 Endless Valley

21:00 The Double Happiness

21:40 Asha Jefferies (w/ 8pce band)

Come and immerse yourself in a day-long mini festival in honour of our much-loved roster of extraordinary Brisbane artists, taking over both The Brightside indoor and outdoor stages.

On offer is an eclectic sonic platter served up in a setting most conducive to good times, good beers, good people and damn good music!

There will also be an exhibition featuring local artists Alexandra Sloane, Finn O’Sullivan, Ashlee Beck and Alycia Rubulis curated by Emily Puxty on display all day.

Plus your crate-digging desires will be satiated with a pop-up record and merch stall run by the good folks from Catalog Music Co..

Everyone is welcome!

Even four-legged friends are allowed in the venue’s outdoor spaces, on leash.

Find out more about the artists:

www.4000records.com

Shugorei with Dan Curro and Camille Barry

Tom is going to multi-tasking himself more for this new piece! Yes we are going to play our new tune amongst your favourite our tunes.

Come to see us on Sunday 26th September!!

Also we will be at Concrete Jungle by Jungle Love on Saturday 9th Oct 2021 Midday to Midnight at the princess theatre. I will post about this closer to this date. But the tickets are selling fast for this too, so please secure your seats from booking tickets! https://theprincesstheatre.com.au/events/concrete-jungle

Album now available for preorder

Shugorei (the album) was two years in the making, and is being released March 4, 2021.

You can preorder the album (either physical or as a download) at Bandcamp:

The album is charged up with an inimitable array of percussion and bricolage, performed by Nozomi Omote and knitted together with Thomas Green’s electronics. It is reminiscent of Amon Tobin, Björk and Geinoh Yamashirogumi. It brings together a range of influences by exploiting an unusually wide sonic palette; it features gapless playback (if you play the CD or enable this feature in Spotify), permitting a narrative-like portrayal of its central theme – the ghostly protector spirit – a tiger-esque form – the Shugorei.

Omote and Green collect instruments as well as musical objects. An unusually broad range of sounds has made its way onto this album. Being hoarders is one thing that Omote and Green have very much in common. Here is a non-exhaustive list of instruments you can hear on the album: vibraphone, marimba (natural and prepared), tom toms, snare drums, Chinese cymbals and gongs, floor tiles, hand bells, sleigh bells, wheelie bin, wind-up toys, marbles, singing bowls, sheets of steel, boots and cardboard boxes, an old rattling desk, yangqin, angklung, mandolin, ukulele, French horn, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, cello, Moog Voyager, Arturia Minibrute and Microfreak, Akai MPC, Korg Monotribe and Elektron Maschinedrum.

Thomas Green’s studio

Three of the eleven works are improvisations, created primarily by Nozome Omote, then added to by Thomas Green. Nozomi quickly, masterfully completed these other-worldly works in a single pass, one quiet afternoon in the studio. However, in general, the creation of the album was painstaking, with each track requiring several month’s worth of attention.

Chihiro Kasagi lends her extraordinary voice to Shugorei’s “bilingual single,” on track 9 of the album, titled Shugorei. This stunning work is all the more compelling thanks to Chihiro’s delivery of verses in both English and Japanese. The song’s lyrics were written by Thomas Green, borrowing some choice phrases from William Blake’s The Tyger. This “tyger” is of course the unifying feature of the album – it is a kind of Guardian Spirit (you can catch a glimpse of him on the album artwork, above).

Here is the text of William Blake’s The Tyger:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain, 
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp, 
Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water’d heaven with their tears: 
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright, 
In the forests of the night: 
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Chihiro Kasagi

Dan Curro played cello on this track and others on the album; you’ll hear his col legno in particular. Nick Harmsen and Sandy Chou provided all the woodwind features, with Nick doubling on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Sandy executing seemingly impossible arpeggios on her flute.

The album will become available on all platforms (e.g. Spotify and Apple Music) from March 4, 2021. More news is to follow (in particular, some exciting news about Shugorei’s launch in Brisbane). Follow Shugorei on Facebook to receive details.

https://www.facebook.com/Shugorei

Clarinet recording DONE!

Hello! This is Noz. First time to write here. My husband is luckily a professional clarinettist and Shugorei asked him to play and record his sound for our first album. Some bits sounded hard. So thank you to amazing Nick to do it. Today was the second part of clarinet and bass clarinet recording at home. I went off from home with my kids to reduce noise, so I wasn’t there. But he did a great job. Nick told me that there was some big noise from neighbour who was working their garden. So it was tricky to do a home recording. In the end he did it. Thank you Nick!!!

A video clip? A storyboard emerges. . .

Musicians can’t pay a fancy animation studio. Animators are gems, and we know it can take hundreds of hours to do even a minute of animation. For us, the truth is, if we want it done we’re going to have to do it ourselves. The medium is going to be stop motion paper art (a bit like origami) with some quasi rotoscoping. Is this a crazy dream? Maybe! Honestly, we’re not sure how this particular crazy scheme is going to work out. Tom is great at animating, but there are only so many hours in the day. . .

That said, the music is finished! “In the can,” as they say. And this particular song is so, SOOOO good. We can hardly wait to share it with you. It is an actual song, beautifully sung by our dear friend Chihiro Kasagi (she has such a beautiful voice). Don’t worry, you’ll get to hear it soon. Not just yet, but soon!

In the mean time, maybe we can share this with you. It’s some of Tom’s drawings for the storyboard. We’ve put it with the music (although we can’t share that yet). This is the story:

Girl is exploring a forest. She looks at her hands and they are transparent (who knows why??). She has a locket, and in it there is a broken heart. She comes across a bright light, that turns into a tiger (very similar to that “tyger” described by William Blake). It runs, and she runs away from it. She trips and falls, but the tiger does not attack her. She explores more, the “tyger” comes and goes, and is very bright (in the forests of the night!). At the end of the song, when the tyger dares to come nearer, her heart locket is repaired, but she must dissappear into the night.

Shugorei’s Plans. . .

Well. . . . firstly you should know we’re working on an album. It’s almost finished. It’s fair to say that the situation with the Covid virus in 2020 has slowed us down. But it has not stopped us. We have just a few more instruments to record, including bass clarinet and flute. Then we’re done! So stick with us (hit subscribe on our page if you’re interested!)

Once we release our first album, we’re immediately moving on to new material. We have two related projects underway. Nozomi is composing some music based on traditional Japanese songs, and we hope to bring this to you soon.

We also want to create a brand new work called “The Sounds of Our Place.” Our plan is simple – we’ll ask members of the community in Kanazawa and Brisbane to record videos and sounds from their place – around the town, or maybe a song, a river, a bird, or any sound they find interesting. We plan to take these recordings (from our friends in Kanazawa and Brisbane), and knit them together into a single musical work for live performance (including video). We’ll be in touch with you about how this exciting plan progresses.

In the mean time, you might enjoy some more of our rehearsal footage, photos, or check out the very first project that Tom and Noz worked on together, called City Pattern!

Practice Sessions (Part 2)

Here is some more (virtual) rehearsal footage. Note that these items are little sneak peeks of our 2020 upcoming album!

Tom and Noz often practice independently, because Brisbane is quite immense, geographically! The upshot is that we video our practice sessions and often “glue” them together later.  We’ll definitely be posting more of our practice and production as we move ahead, so please subscribe to our site if you’d like to watch it unfold.