For Japan with Love: the Concert

Relief! Japan Society published their record of the performance by John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed (this time supported by a Japanese drummer) at the benefit concert for Japan:

(Hint: enjoy it in its full HD glory on YouTube.)

For Japan with Love: the Interview

"Our set was improvised. You never really know what's gonna happen when you improvise. But I felt like there was definitely a spirit there, that kind-of took over. I don't know if it's conscious or choice-- I don't think those are the right words-- but something definitely magical happened."

John Zorn on the trio of himelf, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed
April 2011

In the following video by Japan Society NYC, Lou Reed, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass are discussing their musical selections for the benefit concert for Japan, plus sharing some of their fondest Japan-related memories. Watch and learn about Lou Reed's first computer calculator watch and why Laurie's Japanese s-s-sucks:

A Fearless Afternoon of Non-Rock*

The trio of Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn got together again for another freeform improvisation as part of a 12-hour-long benefit concert marathon for Japan at the Japan Society in NYC. The result is a one-of-a-kind blend of three strong identities from three different musical worlds; this time supported by a huge Japanese drum (and drummer).

"Lou Reed w/Laurie Anderson & John Zorn just slowly melted my face off & fed it back to me in hole where my face used to be!! I love it!"

Tweet by Quasimario

(I'm afraid this randomly shot screen capture turns out to be the only visual proof of the event... the (record of the) web stream proved to be a disaster for numerous reasons, sorry.)


I needed to chop the audio into two parts since at one point the sound engineers of the web stream thought that the static white noise / guitar feedback generated by Lou's instrument was an error so they turned the volume down in the 14th minute into the concert. (Anyway, the audio files needed to be edited at several points since the webcast kept breaking - in the end I simply cut those short gaps off... a butcher's job. :( I hope it still sounds flawless though.)

• Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn at the Japan Society, April 09 2011 - part one (audio length: 13 mins 26 secs, file size: 18.5 MB)

• Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn at the Japan Society, April 09 2011 - part two (audio length: 8 mins 47 secs, file size: 12.1 MB)

* a paraphrase of Lou Reed's words on their trio before their performance at the Montréal Jazz Festival in Canada, 2010

Who Wrote These Rules?

One night I had a dream
and it was a typical dream:
suddenly your long-dead grandmother walks in the door,
and next you fall off a cliff, and that kind of things -
a whole series of interlocking plots
and themes,
kind-of carelessly jump-cut together.

In most dreams,
I'm a somewhat naive dolt
kind-of wandering in and out of the subplots,
not really understanding them,
but
in this dream
I suddenly looked down
and just for an instant
I saw myself,
way below,
sitting at a desk,
writing the dream,
and making up these complex plots for this dolt-like dreamer to
wander through.

Intellectually, I believe in Jung's theory of the self
as a three-storey construction
but I had never seen it physically,
almost architecturally in action.

It was like a relationship
of director to star,
but it was also like
what happens to everybody
when they invent a credible and
more or less consistent personality,
and then they just sort-of live it out.

And it's only when you do something that's
really out-of-character:
Impulsively jumping into a fountain
on your way to work,
Or have a sudden barking fit
while you're waiting for the bus,
That you realize
how tightly scripted
your plan really is.

And you start to ask:
Who wrote this anyway?
Who wrote these rules?

(as heard on Talk Normal: A Lecture by Laurie Anderson, recorded for the 1987 Tokyo International Video Biennale)