The wind that carried a photo from Ireland to Japan and came back with a beautiful song
There are many stories of improbable connections:
Musicians meeting in Facebook groups, like Xeresa's Nico and Whimsical's Krissy (listen to the story there: KVD Famous 5 playlist),
Camille Claudel's Frederico meeting Daniela, a choreographer, and ending up creating a Shoegaze ballet,
Being contacted by John Louis Howard, a great music lover, that was more than 20 years ago at the same Kristin Hersh's concert, in New Orleans' Tipitina's, after reading the article "The day I almost spoke to Kristin Hersh".
3 years ago, I was in a tiny Irish village called Kilmakedar. It is located on the Dingle peninsula, a place that was once called by National Geographic "the most beautiful place on earth". On one of these perfect days, I climbed up a hill in front of the sea and sat there, enjoying this peaceful moment, being one with the sea, the land and the wind. That's when the picture featuring here was taken.
A few months back, plant cell and Noise Artists collaborated for a series of articles presenting the band and their beautiful music:
Sato, the band's composer, uses landscape and nature features to inspire his music. One day, he asked people to send him inspiratory items to help write new music. I took the liberty to send him the picture taken that day, commenting not only on the beauty but also on the sanctity of the area (strongly linked to Saint Brendan, that discovered America a few hundred years before Columbus). A wind blew from Ireland to Japan, bringing a photo along.
Last week a wind blew from Japan to Ireland with a song from plant cell:
Sato's words regarding this song are:
「このコラボレーションは、どこか良い風景を探していた時に、Noise ArtistsのDavid Lignon氏から紹介してくれました。なだらかで緑色した丘に囲まれた神秘的で牧歌的な風景を音にしました。目をつむり、風景を想像しながら聴いてみてください。」
"This collaboration was born thanks to the advice given by David Lignon from Noise Artists as I was looking for a place that could serve as an inspirational landscape. I turned the image he sent of an idyllic, mysterious landscape made up of quiet green hills into sound. Please give it a listen with your eyes shut, tryint to visualize the landscape."
I was amazed: Sato and plant cell managed to capture exactly the feeling of this moment. It is as if they were sitting near me, in total harmony.
It would be easy to write many paragraphs on the magic of the internet, on how 2 like minded people can communicate and share over vast distances, how relationships can slowly develop from little, about the honour that was felt to have helped inspire such a beautiful song.
But this would not be near capturing the magic of this moving communion of Japanese musicians and a French music blogger, spanning continents, spanning cultures. The closest way to picture it is maybe to watch this:
Subtitles: "do you have it?" "Yes, I have it!"
A music video based on the countryside has been done. It includes footage done by your truly in the area. They are what they are, plant cell doing a very nice job to edit everything into a video that capture some of the beauty of Kilmakedar's area.
Thank you Masaki, Eriko, Makiku, Nao, Kiwako, and Sino.
Special thanks to Sara Massiah for her translation from Japanese to English of Sato's words.
