Bix & Marki　Summer 2024 Tour Report！

This year, we divided the tour into two parts of 4 days each, going North first, then spending some days in Tokyo before going west. Even though the weather in this month of July was really hot, hotter than the last years, we were very happy to go to play our songs outside the big city!

Friday 19 July 2024 　Gotouken
Hakodate-shi Suehiro-cho 4-5 　Tel 0138-23-1106
http://www.gotoken.hakodate.jp/

We performed in a beautiful smaller room, which had an amazing view on the city, with the sea on each side. We started playing at Gotoken 10 years ago, and we think again of that first day in 2012 when we found out that a French priest called Philippe Claude had been very active in founding the French-Japanese Association of Hakodate. We strongly feel that we continue his work, thank you so much to Mr. Nao Wakayama and the Association!

Saturday 20 July 2024 　From O
Aomori-ken Oowani-cho in front of JR-Oowani Station 　Tel 0172-55-9933
https://www.instagram.com/from_owani/

Owani is a small town near Hirosaki, where fewer and fewer people live, as it is the case for many small towns in the countryside. But this "Onsen town" is getting a little bit more foreign tourists than before this year. 3 young boys originally from Owani have come back from Tokyo to establish this bar-restaurant – social place called From O. Thanks to Ms. Makiko Kumano, we were able to play for some farmers and other people, and could get a feel of how it is to make a town live again.

Sunday 21 July 2024 　　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/

The sky was dark, the weather report said it was going to rain. It actually did, when we started the concert. We had to cover the instruments and the equipment. Despite the rain, the flowers and the garden were wonderful, and the few people who had met up said that our sound was really soft in the rain. Music is nature, air and ... vibrations (the rain and the cicadas, the birds singing …)!

Monday 22 July 2024 　Restaurant Cassis
Aomori-shi Matumori 3-20-52　Tel 017-764-0331

On the east side of the city of Aomori, in a house by the road, this was such a delightful restaurant, with beautiful and simple interior design and space, fantastic ‘mariage’ of foods, a lovely couple working together and wonderful clients. We had an awesome time playing and in between the songs communicating with everyone. It was our first time here and certainly not the last… a great meeting of sound, taste, visual and spiritual, natural feelings

Thursday 1 August 2024 　Cafe 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/

We started playing at apéritif time (5 pm), in English one would say at tea-time. Friends came to listen to us, but there were fewer people later in the evening, maybe because on all channels on the tv people were asked not to go outdoor too much, because of the heat and the risk of heat stroke. We love to come here and play, also because Azy and his team are soo welcoming and are supporting soo much live musicians. Btw Azy and his family know very well about music!


Azy played the guitar a little after the concert to show us his flamenco like phrases.

Friday 2 August 2024 　Boute-en-train
Mie-ken Ise-shi Honmachi 4-7 Joinus ise １F  Tel 0596-29-3308
https://www.boute-en-train.com/

A great and hot Summer evening full of energy, of happiness and conviviality. The French Bistrot cuisine and the wine were very tasty. Everybody listened to our music and seemed to have a good time. We played more up-tempo songs than usual and felt really like ‘boute-en-train’, which means in English ‘party people’. Here too, the restaurant owner said that there were less clients than in the pre-covid period, but that he thinks it is so very necessary to come together, eat, drink, listen to musicians playing and have fun together, in real time. Thank you so much to all of you !

Saturday 3 August 2024 　Open Sesame
Gifu-shi Oritate Otsui 785-1 Tchibana-en　Tel 058-234-3505
http://opensesame-gifu.jimdo.com

Our friends from Gifu were there with their families! Thank you so much to you all. Lovely Makiko added percussion and rhythm to two of our songs, which was wonderful and fun. The stage and the equipment were ready, as before, we didn’t have to set up anything, and we could just come and play. But … we were the first to play in 3 years ! Why was that ? Where are the local artists, dancers, musicians, poets, who could definitely use the place to perform !

On the way back to Tokyo, we stopped by the Noto peninsula where there had been a devastating earthquake on the 1st of January this year. We went to Wakura Onsen, the last stop of the JR Nanao line in the middle of the peninsula, and walked down to the market from the station. set up every evening by inhabitants, to have some food and a chat , and we tried to contribute.


We had heard that some musicians who are living there were asking people to come: not to let them down. Even if practical things are not possible to do right away, they ask not to forget them.


Enormously many houses destroyed, still left as it was just after the earthquake in some parts of this amazingly beautiful region, most people had gone to stay in another place, many of them in temporary housing. We also felt that the empty big buildings, almost falling into the sea, the deep silence and the cracks here and there, were showing how strong nature can be, how strong human beings must be to survive, and how important it is to help each other.

We didn’t play our music, but felt a connection through the air and the spirit of the place. The nature on Noto is breathtaking. Music can also be silence and resilience, the air goes into the music.

29. Summer tour 2024