TOKIO HEAVEN - TWIN CONCERTS
Espen and I had bought 50 good-looking card-board sleeves in Portland and were discussing what we could do with them to make them work as covers for our live-album. We are both fans of comics, we were drinking coffee in Espens kitchen and suddenly we remembered that our contact in Japan; Tetsuro Yasunagas wife Junko Harada is a Manga-artist. She releases comic-books in Japan. Maybe we could incorporate Manga-drawings in the sleeve-design? But how? We thought about the modest number of copies this release would have. 50 cardboard frames. Isn't 50 frames a good number for a comic-book? Could the release as a whole become the comic-book? We sent an email to Junko asking her about it and luckily she said yes. She made a 50 frame story for us called "Tokio Heaven" and drew every square of Manga-magic by hand directly on each sleeve. Even all the text is written by hand by her on the sleeves.
Twin concerts is as the title suggest two concerts. They took place at AD & A Gallery in Osaka and at Super Deluxe in Tokyo on October 2008. Alog is not a free improvisation group, at least not in the regular sense of the word. We are normally more comfortable in a structured environment, with the improvisation going on within certain bounds. The two concerts are twins in the sense that we presented the same material at both venues, but the human factor, beautiful disasters, chance and the fragility of both our music and our equipment makes no performance alike. We used some of our home-made instruments which are both temperamental and unstable. Emi Maeda changed the game a bit for us at Super Deluxe were she put a grandious finale on our show, equipped with a couple of effect-pedals, a microphone and controlled rage. If you listen carefully Espens computer being pushed beyond its limits, actually has a big meltdown at the end sending the version of Son of King into a glitchy loop which became the cue for Emi to step up her game.
Junko Harada did the comic-book "Tokio Heaven". Emi Maeda was our small surprise/big surprise at Super Deluxe. Tetsuro Yasunaga booked and organized our concerts, Alexander Rishaug was our sound-engenieer in Osaka, Jana Winderen made the recordings, Alog did the mastering and Mint released it.
Special thanks to Rune Kristoffersen
Dag-Are / Mint
Malmö, January 2012
