Bix & Marki　Summer 2019 Tour Report

Although this tour took almost 3 weeks and we were playing almost every night, we didn’t feel tired when we traveled. Maybe we had gotten used to touring or maybe it was the magic of music. This time, we were able to speak more with many people, before and after the concerts, therefore understanding more the meaning of our work and what the people we met were thinking. It was a beautiful tour into reality.

Friday 19 July 2019 2pm 　Asahigaoka Senior Residence
Hakodate-shi asahigaoka-cho 78　Tel 0138-50-2121
http://www.asahigaoka.jp/

The Asahigaoka Senior Residence focuses on nature, relaxation, artistic expression and well-being for a good end of life. Playing there always gives us a feeling of the importance of music and the arts !

We played and sang together at the foreign cemetery to commemorate French sailors, in the nice breeze from the sea.

Friday 19 July 2019 6pm 　Gotouken
Hakodate-shi Suehiro-cho 4-5 　Tel 0138-23-1106
http://www.gotoken.hakodate.jp/

The stage, the dinner, new people, acquaintances and friends. One of them, Mr. Kono, is researching on the historic connections between Hakodate and France. His speech was so passionate and Mr. Wakayama organized very well the evening around our music.

Saturday 20 July 2019
　Garden OOKINA KURiNO KINOSHITADE
Aomori-ken Hirakawaki-shi Machiiyamamoto 314　Tel 0172-88-5529
https://www.garden-osawa.com/
https://ameblo.jp/ebina1110/
https://www.facebook.com/opengardenookinakuri/

Flowers, apple trees, green lawns: a beautiful garden. The breeze and the smell of lavender just behind our parasol gave an extra breath to our music. We are greatful to Mr. Osawa and his family for inviting so many people, and to Makiko Kumano who helped us very much during the concert with selling the CDs and informing people about us.


The view from a seat behind the stage.

Bix gave a French introductory lesson to 17 students from Hirosaki University, which was set up by "Hirosaki x France project". http://human.cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/french/

We all made a circle and learned French expressions while ‘meeting’ each other in the center of the circle. This was the first French class for most of them and we briskly did some role-plays.

Sunday 21 July 2019 cuisine & drinks HYPE
Aomori-ken Hirosaki-shi Dotemachi 181-9 Tel 0172-40-0139
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Restaurant/HYPE-339288990182274/
https://www.instagram.com/hype_hirosaki/?hl=ja

We talked a lot between the songs and the audience talked with us too ! Hype is a newly opened place. Hirosaki is a very quiet town in the evening, and we even had a couple of tourists who came because they saw the lights and heard the music.

Monday 22 July 2019 　Yuki's hookah bar
Akita-shi Minami-dori Kameno-cho 1-5 2F　Tel 050-1257-7948
https://www.facebook.com/hookahbarakita/

A Monday evening in Akita… music lovers came to Yuki’s … the whole bar was filled with musical energy. A local poet was writing poems while we were playing and Yuki gave us such a good energy as he always does. Thank you !!!

Tuesday 23 July 2019 　Alliance Francaise Sendai
Miyagi-ken Sendai-shi Aoba-ku Honchou 2-8-10   Tel 022-225-1475
http://alliancefrancaise-sendai.org/ja/

Any language you can learn is a treasure. There are people interested in music, in rhythms, in sounds, in literature, in science, in art… this is all connected to language, and it is our work as musicians and teachers to spread a little bit of this around… There were just two people for the concert but we tried to motivate them with our music and having fun together.

Saturday 27 July 2019 　Cafe TAC
Nagano-ken Shimosuwa-cho Mita-machi 3158


It was raining cats and dogs outside but with doors wide open and wonderful listeners we had a great time, like last time. Shimo Suwa is reviving thanks to all these artists who come to settle down there.


We stayed at the local guest house and the next morning met our contemporary dancer-friend Kanna with whom we played and danced, for the guests, in the guesthouse. So refreshing !


Kanna has danced with our music twice before, when we played at the restaurant "Mori no kyujitsu" in Yukuhashi, Fukuoka.

Sunday 29 July 2019 　3 Trois rojiura
Nagano-ken Matsumoto-shi Cyuou 2-10-10   Tel 0263-41-0385
https://www.facebook.com/trois3rojiura/



Arthur is a friend musician and composer from Tokyo whom we invited to come to play with us in Matsumoto. His mix feeling with jazz, blues and country music expresses very cool and relaxed emotion. We had a great time with him. He played his songs and we played with him too.

Monday 29 July 2019 　Au Crieur de vin
Nagano-ken Matsumoto-shi Fukasi 1-2-11   Tel 02 63 37 19 66
http://crieur-japon.com/

At au Crieur de vin the wonderful Tamamoto owner couple seemed to be happy. 3 couples who are running their own ‘Au Crieur de vin’ restaurants in Tokyo, were there, by chance, and we played for a dinner meeting of French chefs. The president of the French-Japanese association of Nagano was also there.

Tuesday 30 July 2019 　Hiyori cafe
Nagano-shi Higashi-machi 131  Tel 026 -237ー6636
https://www.facebook.com/HiyoriCafe/

Bix had a workshop of "abstract painting' at Hiyori cafe in the afternoon.

A French speaking painter came to the workshop and together with Marki we drew pictures and spread them all over the big table in the middle of the space, while people were having tea or coffee around. The workshop was about ‘looking’ in other ways than the usual form, shadow, color, line… to liberate the line and connect the feeling, the motif and the space.

Between the sound check and the concert, we went to see the Zenkoji temple, which is a 5 min walk from Hiyori café.

It was hot, 35 degrees in the shade...but amazing.

In the Zenkoji temple, there was a vending machine of cigarettes and two highschool boys wanted to buy.... No, it was a vending machine for "good luck charms" ! But do charms from a vending machine work well ?


The space is phenomenal. We heard two actors played here the other day as they thought this cafe was a "vampire's house" or something ! Yes, you might feel in a spiritual mood when you first enter here. The owner Kanna san played a couple of tunes with us, that Marki had composed for her ocarina. She plays in a group, called "Mocca" with her sister. The sound of ocarina made a beautiful moment with the sound of Bix&Marki. Among the people in the concert, a poet and a painter of the region…


After the concert, we had dinner together with the chef and staff of Hiyori cafe. The chef told a lot of comical stories from when he was in Italy !

We took a local train from Toyama to Nyuzen.
We saw a nice scenery just before we arrived in Nyuzen, which has a unique atmosphere, we had heard !

Thursday 1 August 2019 　coffee TIME
Toyama-ken Nyuzen-cho 5230-1  Tel 0765-72-0051
https://www.jazztime.info/
https://www.facebook.com/Music-Cafe-TIME-1437127976564798/

We stepped out of the train station and found a very quiet little town with almost nobody around, a few shops only, most of them closed down... But the music bar owner happened to be the organizer of some of the only monthly (musical) events in town… We had a great time, and thought how important it is to keep doing cultural activities in small towns.


A shrine in Nyuzen somehow influenced by Arabic atmosphere...

When we arrived Kanazawa, the heat was incredible but this time we managed to walk around the beautiful old center of town before the concert and also visited the modern art museum.


Friday 2 August 2019 　Hirami Pan
Kanazawa-shi Naga-machi 1-6-11   Tel 076-221-7831
http://www.hiramipan.com/

At Hirami pan we played for three girls who came separately and who listened calmly to our songs while dining. We also went to a pizzeria in front of Hiramipan, to play two songs !

After eating tasty "Echizen Soba", we went to the Fukui modern art museum of the Fukui city.

We first looked around sculptures of Hiroatsu Takata who lived in Paris for many years including the harsh war time period. He also worked as a journalist which gave him energy as an artist to pursuit his own expression.





After the ANALOG sculptures of Takata, we looked around digital-effected-image works. The bodies of visitors were automatically filmed and projected immediately on the screens as modified images. These kinds of two dimension art works will become three dimensional and technology will fiercely affect to ideas of artists so that they will maybe become good engineers first of all, in a very near future.


saturday 3 August 2019 　Grill AOI
Fukui-shi Oote 3-6-3　 Tel 0776-24-1176
Association Franco-Japonaise de Fukui
http://fukui-france.seesaa.net/

Mr. Tsubota was so kind to organize this wine tasting and dinner-concert show for us, inviting members of the French Japanese Association of Fukui and others. Almost the same people as last time came, and some new ones: we all had a great time!

Sunday 4 August 2019 energy cafe OPEN SESAME
Gifu-shi Oritate 785-1   Tel 058-234-3505
https://opensesame-gifu.jimdo.com/

Here we met our friend Gilles and his family as well as members of Gifrance and others. Bix was so happy to hear that a young flutist who was there liked her flute playing. They spoke about how the flute parts are improvised within the harmony frame of the pieces, and that Bix has been working on ethnic, jazz and classical flute playing.

Monday 5 August 2019 　Cafe Dufi
Nagoya-shi Naka-ku Shin-sakae 3-17-11   Tel 052 263 6511
http://cafedufi.com

At Dufi many of our Nagoya friends came, and other people ! The atmosphere was great. Canadian Raoul had a talk between the two stages about his trip to Madagascar. Thank you to all of you ! It is always a special welcoming atmosphere !

Tuesday 6 August 2019 　Aichi Kita FM united north 84.2
Aichi-ken Inuyama-shi Nishi-koken 5   http://842fm.jp/

We were invited to present our music in the < Giovanni and Rie’s dramatic time> radio program produced by our friends Rie Asakawa and Giovanni Piazza from Yokkaichi, Mie. Our music on the radio seemed almost shockingly natural and relaxed… Thank you for making us explain about our work!


We can see the Inuyama castle, from the street in front of the radio station.

Wednesday 7 August 2019 　FSN bar (chez Philippe ）
Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku East of Kawaramachi-Rokkaku
Rokkaku terrace bld 3F   Tel 090 5064 0642
https://www.facebook.com/chezphilippefsn/

We shared the evening with Jay Crystall (vo, g, perc), a New Yorker who lives in Kyoto and has just written the book Lovesic in Kyoto. He sings his own songs and expresses living energy… He joined us on percussion on a some of our songs, and Bix and Marki were so happy to meet people from Kyoto that they had met 25 years ago ! Kind French Colin was the bartender.

Tuesday 8 August 2019 　Bistrot Café de Paris
Kobe-shi Cyuou-ku Yamamoto-dori 1-7-21   Tel 078-241-9448
http://cafe-de-paris.jp/
https://www.facebook.com/bistrotcafedeparis/

Our music really fits the atmosphere of Cafe de Paris. Old friends from 25 years ago and 15 years ago and new friends came to listen to us. We loved it. Life is short and intense and music links people over time.

Saturday 10 August 2019 　In front of Palmate bld
Shimane-ken Izumo-shi Imaichi-cho 2065
NPO Esperanza Tel 090-9733-0910

This international cultural festival with music and food from various countries, Bangladesh, Brasil, Thailand etc... was organized thanks to NPO Esperanza from Izumo (Mr. Esumi), A Brazilian group danced as the opening of the stage.


This festival was organized to make the foreigners and the Japanese living in Izumo feel good being together. Under the starry night, listening to music and eating food for the body and for the soul. We loved it.


Bix started a drawing stand for people to learn French words. Children drew whatever they liked and Bix taught them French words. The agreeable summer night breeze was nice!

We left Izumo in the morning, Mr.Esumi drove us to Hamada. We dropped by a pottery center at Yunotsu on the way. There is a huge beautiful kiln on the hill and it is still working.







Sunday 11 August 2019 　Iwami Kominkan (Public hall)
Shimane-ken Hamada-shi Kurokawa-cho 132-2 Tel 0855 22-1380
Organized by NPO Esperanza (of Izumo)
Supported by Hamada International Association & Cafe Michele


We gave an introductory French course and played our songs for a group of people in Hamada. The Hamada International Association was linked to Esumi san’s Esperanza NPO, and we had a great time, combining language introduction and music.


We visited the Iwami Ginzan silver mine on the way back from Hamada. The Rakanji temple here has 500 small Buddhist statues in the caves of the mountain which has a kind of Chinese-like scenery. The houses around the temple keep their nice old Japanese style making this area quite valuable.

Monday 12 August 2019 10am 　Hirata Friendly House
Shimane-ken Izumo-shi Nishihirata-cho 171 / Organized by Hirata international center


In Hirata Mr. Ohashi organized an ‘international meeting event’ with our music. Children and their parents came and Bix showed how to dance freely on one of the songs … It was close to Obon, which is the Japanese All Saints period, in Japan in mid-august. There are not many international events in Hirata and there were few people, but it's important to continue!

Monday 12 August 2019 2:30pm 　FLAT at Shimane university
Shimane-ken Matsue-shi Nishikawatsu-cho 1060
Organized by "L'association amicale franco-japonaise" of Shimane
Info : Tel 0853-63-8117 M.Ohashi (Restaurant l'arc en ciel)
japofrashimane@gmail.com   Fax：0852-32-6227

We played in a small hut for student meetings, surrounded by trees and singing cicada, for members of the French-Japanese Friendship Association, also organized by Mr. Ohashi. Being the Summer holiday, the University was empty, but we had a great time playing for the members. We also had a chatting session at the end, exchanging ideas about music, education and society. It had never happened before to have such deep questions, after a concert…

The trip was long and wonderful: we were like scuba diving in the depths of society, in 38 degrees of the Summer heat.
Advertising for our concerts had been difficult to do : people definitely have so much going on, that is for example promoted on the internet and smartphones. Local businesses and wandering musicians like us are certainly having a harder time, but we thought that we just have to continue because we think human connection, talking and playing music physically, for an audience, is very important as an exchange of energies.
Thank you very much to you all.

24. Summer Tour 2019