Shugo Tokumaru(JAP)
For those who never heard of Shugo Tokumaru, go read this description about him.
Fantastic show! That was a show that had the amazing power to make you feel happy! I got bored during the French opening trio Klimperei & Fenech & Grimo. I thought they played toy music and I was wrong, it was more ambient and post post rock music.
Shugo Tokumaru planned to tour Europe last year, but cancelled it. I was so glad to finally see him, he performed with two members of his band, the drummer and the female multi-instrumentalist. That gig in Paris opened his Europe tour. Go see him and his band if they're coming to your town!
Shugo seems to be a simple and shy man wearing casual clothes and being barefoot while playing guitar. He's an amazing Japanese singer-songwriter from Tokyo who sings in Japanese with a little high-pitched voice. But even if you don't understand at all what he sings, the melody, the mix of the bunch of instruments and the rhythms on the songs make you immediately be in a joyful mood and be a child again. If you like John Fahey's songs, you will love Shugo's songs. I read reviews where people compared him to Sufjan Stevens! Most of the cheerful audience at Divan du Monde consisted of 90% Occidental people and 10% of Japanese people.
He tried to introduce himself in French (and he did it well!) :). I only remembered that he played old nice songs from previous albums, but I really don't know the titles, "Lahaha", "Kiiro", "Parachute", "Green Rain", and the song "Malerina" as the encore. He also played a great cover of "Video Killed The Radiostar" by The Buggles, not in Japanese but in English, on a small ukulele, with people singing along. It's like every music note he plays is a color, so his songs make your mind full of colors. As you might notice on the pictures, he don't have any setlist paper on stage, but something that looks like a book of partitions.
That was quite enjoyable to see the female musician playing glockenspiel, piano, accordeon, and many small toys doing birds sounds. And the drummer made me smile, because he made faces while drumming! :)
Check out the special website with colorful moving shapes on the songs extracts from his album "Port Entropy".
A great portrait picture by Renaud Monfourny.
Shugo Tokumaru planned to tour Europe last year, but cancelled it. I was so glad to finally see him, he performed with two members of his band, the drummer and the female multi-instrumentalist. That gig in Paris opened his Europe tour. Go see him and his band if they're coming to your town!
Shugo seems to be a simple and shy man wearing casual clothes and being barefoot while playing guitar. He's an amazing Japanese singer-songwriter from Tokyo who sings in Japanese with a little high-pitched voice. But even if you don't understand at all what he sings, the melody, the mix of the bunch of instruments and the rhythms on the songs make you immediately be in a joyful mood and be a child again. If you like John Fahey's songs, you will love Shugo's songs. I read reviews where people compared him to Sufjan Stevens! Most of the cheerful audience at Divan du Monde consisted of 90% Occidental people and 10% of Japanese people.
He tried to introduce himself in French (and he did it well!) :). I only remembered that he played old nice songs from previous albums, but I really don't know the titles, "Lahaha", "Kiiro", "Parachute", "Green Rain", and the song "Malerina" as the encore. He also played a great cover of "Video Killed The Radiostar" by The Buggles, not in Japanese but in English, on a small ukulele, with people singing along. It's like every music note he plays is a color, so his songs make your mind full of colors. As you might notice on the pictures, he don't have any setlist paper on stage, but something that looks like a book of partitions.
That was quite enjoyable to see the female musician playing glockenspiel, piano, accordeon, and many small toys doing birds sounds. And the drummer made me smile, because he made faces while drumming! :)
Check out the special website with colorful moving shapes on the songs extracts from his album "Port Entropy".
A great portrait picture by Renaud Monfourny.
Look at these colorful CDs, T-Shirts and these cute towels (so Japanese)! You can give your support at the merchandising for the Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami Relief for the victims on the little box Tonofon. Or buy his song 'Open The Bottle' online. It's probably not the best time for Japanese bands to tour Europe after the Japanese earthquake, being far from family and friends, but Shugo and his crew fortunately didn't cancel the tour one more time. Happy that they're all fine.
I actually discovered him by watching the Take Away Show he did for la Blogothèque (by Colin Solal Cardo). I watched it many times... His last album "Port Entropy" is absolutely gorgeous, really really love the songs on it.
And if you have some time, watch his rare interview for The Tripwire in 2008:
Shugo Tokumaru - Future Umbrella (session for VideoTapas in Spain)
Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee (live on NHK) - excellent !
Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee (live on NHK) - excellent !
And if you have some time, watch his rare interview for The Tripwire in 2008:
2 comments:
La photo de la scène avec tous ces instruments donne envie d'y avoir été!
C'est par cette comparaison avec Sufjan à l'époque de son premier album ("le Sufjan nippon" avait écrit Magic) que je m'étais penché sur Shugo. Finalement la comparaison n'est pas vraiment juste, le Pascal Comelade nippon serait plus juste!
:)
Oui, exact. Plutôt Pascal Comelade ou John Fahey (niveau guitare) que Sufjan.
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