It is time to round up some support for our next album project. Below you can red how to suport our album, but first some more on the genesis of this music and dance piece. Over the last 12 months or so I played quite a few iterations of Arnaud Lechat’s wonderful cycle of compositions called Le Rêve, based on the painting by Henri Rousseau. Arnaud recorded his own parts for flutes, percussion and voice on one afternoon, a year ago or so. He send me the tracks and soon after I came over to play parts on voice, flutes, mouth-harps and effects, the way he had it in mind. It fitted seamlessly so we did several performances with a dancer. Each time it was different. Some things got better, some things failed or were less interesting. Each time we had Zhan Yachun dancing with us.
The new challenge was to play the music without her dancing. We tried several times. Each time it was different, very different. But the shape became sharp. This year on Fools’ Day, we committed our audio-only version to the recording machine of French recording expert Yannick Dauby. The result was beyond our expectation. We are really excited to put this album into the world: for musicians this is always a special process and event. And not without obstacles. I have had long discussions with Arnaud about the question: to print or not to print? Fewer and fewer people have CD players. Even the car, which was the last bulwark of CD players for many people, is changing to audio and video streaming now. For decades – what I say? – for a hundred or more years, selling records was a means of generating an income for musicians.
The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work
With that epoch coming to an end, one of the ‘traditional’ ways for a musician or record label to recuperate the cost of recording, desiging, printing, distributing and promoting an album is challenging. For 20 years or so we enjoyed the ability to record cheaper, in high quality, and produce small print-runs of CDs. But now physical things are harder to sell. Arnaud tried making an album with a beautiful booklet with poems and art work and a download code – no CD inside. It did not work: buyers still wanted a CD, not just the booklet with download code. But as time goes on, even our CDs are selling fewer and fewer at concerts.
And yet, being musicians, produce we must. The physical CD, a digipack or something similar in carton, without booklet, is taking shape (see the top of the message to get an impression of where the design is going at the moment).
Watch an excerpt from one of the live performances we did of this album, when it was still primarily a music & dance performance (which it also will be: we will do sections of Le Rêve in an entirely new setting in the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in september).
I will spare you the details of why and how we came to the conclusion to put out a physical album in 2024. You can read that in my newsletter if you like (sign up if you like). Here is how you can support us, in order of urgency (most urgent support comes first):
1. Pre-order the album in the making from us, so that we can get part of the production cost together instead of investing our savings. Pay to my bank account or Paypal (see below).
2. Pre-order the album when we (Arnaud and Mark) put it on our Bandcamp pages. Bandcamp is a fantastic medium which pays a very large share to musicians. Compared to Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube it is a musician’s heaven, and a place where fans can express their interest in a very concrete way. Bandcamp is right when it claims that “artists receive 80-85% of every dollar a fan spends” and they pay very soon too, not after 6 or 12 months.
3. Buy the album when it is out, from us or from Bandcamp, or at a concert. You might never play the actual CD, we know, but you can get a download code and we can plan our next album, because people like you bought this one!
One last option: if there hides a philantrope in you, if you like to support the arts and other causes, and if you can easily spend some more, consider to pay more than just the album price. Basically, this is like tipping a waiter, or even sponsoring a project. Bandcamp too has this function to pay more than the set price, and in the last two years I noticed every once in a while fans do indeed pay extra! Every bit counts and the gesture itself is already very encouraging. If you pay more than the album price we have more chances to do more promotion, put out more albums, etc. If you want to support in a more substantial way and are interested in return-favors (a dedication in the album sleeve, a concert at home, etc.), please let us know by sending an email.
Pre-order Le Rêve now!
1. Make your choice:
CD with download code € 15,- + worldwide shipping € 10,- = € 25,-
CD with download code € 15,- + europe shipping € 7,- = € 22,-
CD with download code € 15,- + Netherlands shipping € 5,- = € 20,-
CD with download code NT$ 500,- + Taiwan shipping NT$ 80,- = NT$ 580
Ask us for special rates, for example sending to Japan from Taiwan.
Return this newsletter to mark@fusica and cc to Hsi-Yin (hsiyin724@gmail.com) with ‘DreamOrder’ in the subject header or title. Make sure to leave your name + full address + phone (optional) and also let us know your banking name / last 3 digits (for Taiwan).
4. In the planned release month September or October we will send you the album as soon as it is out!
During one of my concerts in Taucha, Germany, last month, I asked the audience who knows the name Michael Vetter. Several people raised their hands. But as I expected, many people at the Ancient Trance Festival don’t know his name. Of course, quite a few more may have heard his music in the Age of Spotify: you listen but don’t know what album is playing, now that a physical relationship to the medium (as in the time of LPs, CDs) is outdated. Besides, Ancient Trance is not exactly overlapping with Vetter’s artistic direction. He was much more avant-garde, with musical influences from Baroque to Dada and Fluxus, and a host of visual influences, from mediaeval religious painting and Chinese calligraphy to comics.
In the next few weeks O TRIOM is looking back at the life and work of the instrumentalist, vocalist, painter, poet, pedagogue and ordained Zen master Michael Vetter (1943-2013). We will be showing how his legacy continues to inspire, inform and transform our performing today in several concerts, a lecture and workshops. Why? Certainly not because Vetter was such a fine overtone singer. There are and have been many fine overtone singers, and Vetter’s style of singing and performing was one of many – not ‘just’ one of many, but a very influential one, to be sure. In the 1980s, anyone wanting to do something with overtone singing went to Vetter’s workshops and bought his albums, at least in very active German-speaking areas (and The Netherlands too). Vetter set certain standards for overtone singing, for a certain period of time, and those standards hardly changed.
Michael Vetter making Indian ink drawings, Academia Caparaia, Italy, 2009. (Photograph Mark van Tongeren under protection of Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND)
The interest of O TRIOM in Vetter also started with overtone singing, but soon branched out in many other directions. For example: Vetter as a typical Zen Buddhist. He insists again and again that one should give undivided attention to what one is doing when making music (or anything else, though he would not talk about anything, but about art). And he applied this attitude in all his music, and all his other creative work, as well as his cooking and everyday life. When I read and re-read his texts, or when I go through the conversations we had and the interviews I did with him, I frequently stumble upon contradictions (literally: ‘counter-speaking’) concerning his spiritual or religious outlook. You may be looking to clarify his positions towards spiritual questions, and find that he has much to say about that. Many people felt he was a very religious person and his biography testifies to that. Certainly a believer! But then you will sooner or later find a remark in which he warns for overzealous religious interpretations. “Here and there one learns about the connection between overtones and Our Lord. That is far removed from me!” And yet, many of his art and music works bear very clear Christian (and not just Zen) elements.
It seems that it does not make sense. And that is exactly what we can take away from Michael Vetter (or maybe from Zen in general), and what keeps me coming back to him for fresh insights: there is no single, or final way to talk about or do anything. There are only temporarily, or partially ‘true’ or ‘convincing’ arguments to believe, or positions to take. As soon as one clings too much to certain truths, it is time to let it go again and look for yet another perspective .
In the weeks to come we will prepare ourselves with this in mind: try as best as you can to follow certain aesthetic and creative paths, and be always willing to throw them overboard again and replace them with something new. I am excited about this moment in our O TRIOM collaboration, which began in early 2022, if I remember well. And I salute the brilliant artist who bridged so many visions and visuals, sounds and musics, thoughts and dreams in a lifetime bursting with creative output.
Read an earlier post about why we should remember Michael Vetter here.
PROGRAM
Lecture Transverbal
Time: 6th October (Friday) 2023, 19:00-21:30
Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, 2rd floor
Speaker: prof. CHUNG Mingder (Department of Theatre Arts, TNUA), Mark van Tongeren, LU Qi Chung, LEE Wei Lin
Workshop Michael Vetter’s Overtone Singing Methods
Time: 13th October (Friday) 2023, 10:00-17:00
Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, 3rd floor
Facilitator: LU Qi Chung, LEE Wei Lin
Workshop OKYO
Time: 17th October (Tuesday) 2023, 10:00-17:00
Location: Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre 3rd floor
This album marks the official ending of a long period of doubt and uncertainty what to do with my music in light of the music industry. Basically, I have been slow, very slow, to catch on with the possibilities of the internet, and apparently refused to make up my mind. The first signs of dealing with it has been to launch some videos on YouTube, including a live concert with Sinan Art. Now, here is my next step: the first physical release of new music made just by myself in some twenty years (besides collaborative projects such as Oorbeek,Parafonia, the Superstringtrio and ad hoc projects such as the Odna soundtrack). I have about a dozen of other releases in the pipeline, partly new, partly old, some of it by me but mostly collaborations, spanning many kinds of music and sound-art.
I had some ideas for the design, starting from the excellent photography of Yi-Jin Hsieh. I decided to use one of her photos and then to turn everything upside down/inside out, with a nod to Chinese writing, which used to be vertical and starts where our Indo-European-language book(let)s normally end, folding open to the right instead of left. So the Chinese cover of the printed album is intentionally the negative and upside down version of the English cover. UN-intentionally the title of track 2 (a kargyraa solo in Tuvan style) somewhat related to this turning around of things, as you see here (I only realised this when I took the photo):
JiJi Liu quickly jumped in to turn my design ideas into proper InDesign-shape that printers need, took care of many details, and suggested to use cardboard instead of a digipack, a great improvement. Our CD agent, named Rush Blood, was not trying to push for a quick and easy fix, he also loves all these details. He does photography, calligraphy and together we went to check the first test plates as they rolled off the presses. The smells and sounds brought me back to my childhood when I joined my dad, the architect, to fetch all kinds of print-work. I inherited a great love of paper, carton, printing, binding etc. etc. from him and truly enjoy getting back to publishing something palpable and beautiful.
A new group called IUooUI is going to give its first series of full performances. Most of us know each other for many years now and share a deep passion for overtone singing, throat singing and improvising with voices and instruments, as well as work on the body-mind relationship. We decided to take it a step further and create surprising performances based on all those amazing sessions we had during workshops throughout the years. We all have dreams and desires to bring the music in our heads alive, for others to hear. This is a challenge. We leave the intimate comfort zone of a workshop space. We are ready to confront an audience of curious listeners in unusual settings, and to envelop them with our resonances, overtones, mantras, syllables, shrieks, assisted by drums, Jew’s Harps, shruti boxes and more.
The name UIooUI stands for the mantra-and sutra-like phrases that we often use, inspired by the okyo of Michael Vetter (1943-2013). Michael transformed these traditional Japanese sutras to expand his own musical language, and this has become part of my own language now. IuooUI also stands for:
Of course, the syllables i-u-o-o-u-i make a small overtone piece in themselves.
The name was proposed by our in-house poet, Amang, whose Chinese name is Yü, which is the last part of IUooUI when it is pronounced as a three-character Mandarin syllabe, yiwoyu.
Our in-house designer JiJi Liu created the logo for us.
The name TWEAKS refers to the process of tweaking, adjusting, making things better by smaller or sometimes bigger changes. It is my hope that next week we can really tweak all the musical elements so that they keep on growing, changing and move towards a more refined shape. This week, at least, some of us were still busy tweaking, like JiJi and Sky, who came up with this after the dress rehearsal:
It has been inspiring to see how busy all members got in recent months to prepare for this first complete performance. They have been working diligently on their sounds and pieces, of which more than half is composed by themselves in smaller units. They took care of sound and light, finding equipment and personnel to handle it, costumes …
Earlier this year we have done some smaller performance, to warm up, and as teasers for our bigger program.
DATES and TIMES
Sunday August 21 – 19:30
Wednesday August 24 – 19:30
Friday August 26 – 15:00 and 19:30
Sunday August 28 – 19:30
The performances will be held at VENUE, on its 5F space, No. 10, Lane 107, Linsen North Road. This is a bustling area and if you have the time, you can have diner before at a nice Japanese restaurant, Umeko, right next door to VENUE (no. 8)!
On 12/12/2021 we started the founding of the TOSA, or Taiwan Overtone Singing Association. It was an old dream of mine to have a more solid vehicle for my work and that of others in the field of overtone singing. But lacking reading and writing skills in Chinese I was unable to give that wish a concrete form. But then my close collaborators Sunny Chen and Jackal Mei began to question me about this and make suggestions about how to let this community grow and organise some bigger events. By now there are quite some people who have studied overtone singing with me or with other local practitioners, or with foreign teachers (often from Inner Mongolia or Tuva). There are several skilled performers and others who are improving their skills rapidly. I tend to be a bit of a loner in my work in overtone singing, but I think the time has come to really help others flower if they wish to become good overtone singers. And to show more people the beauty of this technique in all its forms, whether artistic or therapeutic, traditional or modern.
TOSA members performing on January 1 at Mei Garden Restaurant, Taipei
In the end it was Sunny Chen who has done endless amounts of paperwork to have the first small meeting of founders last December. My heartfelt thanks to her and all those who signed up as founders. The next step is to go public, and this will happen right after Chinese New Year, on February 19. On that day our chairman Sky Tseng will tell more about bigger and smaller events we are going to host every year; about a practising group to brush up your overtone singing and chanting; about concerts we will jointly attend or important books and pieces or CDs we will discuss. Professor Chung Minder, or taimu as he is known to many, will look back to twenty years of overtone singing in Taiwan, and perhaps look forward too. My old friends, and long-time overtone singing lovers (and love-couple in the first place) Wei-Lin and Qi-Chung will do a presentation, and so do I: this serves as the upbeat to a full concert we are preparing for later this year.
To make all of this happen, we need to reach a minimum of 45 members by January 28 (and not by February 19, as we thought before). We hope you will consider to sign up this month and give our association a flying start. A little extra support at this point is much needed since only a small inner circle of people knows about this initiative. Once we get started in February we can reach out to more people.
I began a new class: Shruti Nights, and ran No. I-VIII throughout the year, each with a different theme.
Listen to a nice duet I did with Sunny, translator, co-producer of many of my events, and talented singing student.
RADIOGARDEN BROADCAST
MUSHIMARU’s PHYSICAL POETS
I joined a Butoh workshop and performance by the huge family of Butoh dancer Mushimaru Fujieda and his regular students and collaborators, twenty in total. They came flying in to Taiwan from Japan, Hong Kong and other places, paying from their own pockets. Very dedicated and truly inspiring!
With Hiroyuki Matsuhisa (moham-veena), Shree Katsura (voice and suwarmandar), Mikio Kawasaki (photographer); Sogyu Fukumura, a very famous monk who quit Buddhism decades ago and became activist; Himeko Narumi, whom I visited in her bar in Kyoto a few weeks later; Vinci Mok from Hong Kong, not to mention lots of interesting old and new friends from Taiwan. Our performance UNDER THE TREE OF LIFE is on Youtube, beginning here with the entry of Mushimaru himself.
Recently many Taiwanese repaid the visit to Japan to collaborate with the same people, and one commented that the same performance turned into a rather hard-edged, noisy, radical performance, completely different from the soft version here in Taiwan. More true to the Butoh spirit, for sure, but I was still impressed with Mushimaru and all the kids who joined the event in Taiwan as very narural, innocent performers.
SANGPUY live IN TAIPEI
LUGANG and its AUTOMATED SONIC SURPRISES
Trip to Lugang, where we were deeply impressed by the Longshan Temple. It is not as famous as some other old temples in Lugang, which are more centra. But by far our favorite. Major reasons: little modernization, no entertainment, quite silent (no tourgroups with amplified guides). However, in both temples I encountered automated percussion devices. There was a procession leading to the very noisy and central Mazu Temple or Tian Hou Temple. I had to get away at some point because of the incredibly loud firecrackers, which I found unbearable, and our dog really got shocked from it.
There was no smoke anywhere, and it turned out the noise was produced by a firecracker machine, which you see at the end of this video.
A little later, in Lungshan Temple, I noticed a drum was playing all the time but I saw no one beating it. It turned out to be another automatic device producing percussive sounds, just like the firecracking machine.
PULI, CENTRAL TAIWAN: WORKSHOP
In April I was off to Puli, central Taiwan, for a workshop and another one with Canjune, exploring herbs and plants in the forests. From the roof of a cinnamon producer, a panorama of Puli’s iconic Chung Tai Chan (= Zen) Temple.
After the workshop, re-connect with a nun I got to know in 2004, with a fantastic voice: Guanzu Shi. For all these years she is studying the performance of a specific song in the Huayen Buddhist tradition, for which the way to pronounce many syllables is not exactly known.
SAINKHO and KAZHUHISA ICHIHASHI in JAPAN
First trip to Japan. Too many impression so share, but here’s a few. Basically a family tour but, lucky me, I ran into Sainkho one or two days before she launched her new CD with Kazuhisa Uchihashi in Beijing. Great show together!
What a lovely guy, and what a great show he pulled off. The most astounding thing was that after the ‘normal’ stage show, which already featured lots of people from his village Jrben, some girls began singing and dancing in the lobby. The men joined and sure enough hundreds of people began to join the line after a while. The whole thing lasted at least another 45 minutes, with the last part (not in this video) some very high-energy indigenous male dancers/singers promoting their upcoming hot dance show.
TAIWAN EASTCOAST TOUR
To Mud Studio in Yilan, Zhishan for workshop in Poco a Poco, my first houseconcert in Taiwan, near Hualien, and another concert in Hualien. See my special blogpost.
Bernard produced a dozen or so throat singing CDS and many other interesting titles from around the world. All from this modest office.
EXCHANGE OF NEW TIBTEAN MUSIC PUBLICATIONS
I bring Pan Records’ new CD Phursang Kelak Lama to Ricardo Canzio on behalf of Bernard Kleikamp. Ricardo gave me his precious new book Sakya Pandita’s Treatise on Music.
Chiyou Ding is a sound hobbyist from Taipei. He is interested in the sound or music about rhythmic structure, computer related and field recording. He works mainly in theater and installation. The latest two productions he participated are Yung-Chih Hsueh’s “Plato’s Cave” in sound tech coordination, Olifa Hsieh’s “Sound-whirl” in sound programming.
He graduated from National Chiao Tung University with a master’s program of sound and music innovative technologies. Yude also created soundtrack for theater, dance, and video, working with theatre groups “Approaching Theater”, “Tainaner Ensemble”, “Oz Theatre Company”, etc. He soundtracked for Hsiao-Tzu Tien’s dance work “Hole”, and toured with the team in 2017 Avignon OFF and the 2018 Shenzhen Contemporary Theater Biennial. He also collaborated with pianist Shih-Yang Lee and produced the soundtrack for “Drawer Three” by Ting-Ting Chang, and he was the recorder and sound designer for Ya-Ting Hsu’s work “The River”.
::::妙工俊陽 Miao Gong Jun Yang aka 李俊陽 Jun-Yang Li::::
Jun Yang Li has been making work since the age of 25 and has been in the art field for more than 15 years. His works include painting (graffiti ink painting on various materials), wood carving, wire molding, large and small installations, modifying ready-made objects, reorganizing found items, graffiti on sites, and site-specific performance art, puppet making and performing, experimental theatre. He has also participated in some TV commercials and dramas, and even temple building. Jun Yang’s art practice is a manifestation of Taiwanese common people fed by folklore traditions.
交匯於科學與藝術範疇的聲音探索者Mark van Tongeren，主要以(荷麥)雙聲 / 泛音唱法聞名。早期的作品受到幾種經驗的影響，在圖瓦共和國的人種音樂學考察、蒙古喉唱與西藏低音唱咒研究、與安姆斯特丹實驗劇團Silo合作時擔任表演-錄音-聲音藝術家。之後，他加入Oorbeek即興樂團，並且與Michael Vetter學習跨媒介藝術。近期的作品包括與Superstingtrio演出的Incognito Ergo Sum, 以他做的曲Zeropoint進行的Overtone Singing馬拉松，以及與作曲家Paul Oomen合作的表演。
Mark van Tongeren is a sound explorer interested in the intersection of science and art. He is best known for his work as an overtone/throat singer. His early work was strongly influenced by ethnomusicological fieldwork trips to Tuva and by studies of Mongolian throat singing and Tibetan chanting, as well as by his role as a performer-recordist-sound artist with the Amsterdam-based experimental group Silo Theatre. He later joined the 7-piece improvisation band Oorbeek, and studied intermedial arts with the late musician and artist Michael Vetter. His recent work includes the performance Incognito Ergo Sum with Superstringtrio, and the Overtone Singing Marathon based upon his cycle of compositions Zeropoint, performed in collaboration with composer Paul Oomen.
Hui-Chun Lin is a musician who moves fluidly among work in avantgarde music, world music, jazz and improvisation and also performance. Her repertoire encompasses traditional, experimental and classical music in equal measure. Her musical work is concerned above all with sounding out the intersections, boundaries and connections among genres, epochs and cultures. Since 2011, she is a musician, performer and cello teacher in Berlin.
照片攝影 Photo credit: Mark by 蔡詩凡 / Shi-Fan Tsai。
贊助單位：財團法人國家文化藝術基金會
Sponsor: The National Culture and Arts Foundation
Here is a letter I wrote earlier this year when I was about to turn 50 (want to get on the mailinglist too? let me know!):
I love the number 49 and its symbolism. Much better than 50. So I prefer to send out a shout to everyone on the last day of my 49th year in which I am walking on this strange and wonderful place called earth, rather than on the first day of the 50th year. My dear sister Daphne somehow knew I wanted to celebrate while I was still 49, when she organised a surprise party for me several months ago. I completely and totally bought it, even after my mom and two friends showed up in a park where you would not expect that. What a great present!
And then the Tuvans, for whom 49 is a special number, play their magic on me too. Tuva and its inhabitants have shaped my life in many ways. When I was halfway on to this point of my life and getting close to 25 years old, I first visited Tuva and fell in love with the place forever. 12 Years later I visited Tuva with June Wen, and it was then and there that we found out that we are destined for each other. That led to our marriage, to our kids, to me moving to Taiwan. Life-changing experiences in which Tuva seemed to play a role.
And right now, guess what? Earlier this year I began organising several Tuvan concerts here in Taiwan, and I was asked to curate two different acts for the Asian Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. And today (last day of 49) the first Tuvan group, a young quartet called Ezengi, has just finished their job (which they did very well) and returns to Tuva. And tomorrow (first day of 50) four fine senior musicians arrive from Tuva to Taiwan for this weekend’s performances: Shonchalai and Nachyn Choodu, Andrei Öpei and Valerii Mongush. Coincidence?
And then, there was this other coincidence this year. When I fist visited Tuva I learned about a Scythian ornament found during archaeological excavations, consisting of a panther biting its own tail. A wonderful symbol of infinity and the ever-repeating cycles of events. “Ma fin est mon commencement” (“my end is my beginning’) as mediaeval poets and musicians such as Guillaume de Machaut knew so well. This spring a very noble and inspiring friend, the philosopher Fons Elders, sent around a message with his view about this symbol, which is known as the ouroboros in the western world. A little later I performed in the Oosterkerk in Amsterdam with the wonderful Turkish ney player Sinan Arat, a concert I had arranged to be filmed so that I could share it with everybody. In the background of our stage happened to be . . . an ouroboros. So a few days ago, while working on the video I decided to call it “The Ouroboros Concert”. The next day I took the Tuvans to the Pacific Ocean – Tuva being very far removed from any sea or ocean. They decided to try surfing and that’s how I noticed the Scythian ouroboros tattooed on the arm of Anchy Damdyn. What a great idea! The first time ever I imagined I could have a tattoo too.
So by way of celebration and to express the gratitude I feel for being a human amidst so many wonderful human beings I share this Ouroboros concert video with you.
Nederlands
Hier is een brief die ik onlangs rondstuurde, toen ik op het punt stond 49 te worden (ook op de mailinglijst? laat het weten!):
49 Is een prachtig getal met een prachtige symboliek. Veel beter dan 50. Dus stuur ik een groet aan iedereen op de laatste dag van de 49 jaar dat ik op deze vreemde, wonderlijke planeet rondloop, in plaats van de eerste dag van mijn 50e. Mijn lieve zus Daphne voelde kennelijk al aan dat ik liever even stil sta bij mijn leven op mijn 49e, toen ze een surprise party voor me oganiseerde enkele maanden geleden. Ik stonk er totaal in, zelfs nadat mijn moeder en enkele vrienden spontaan opdoken in een park waar je hen toch niet 1-2-3 samen verwacht. Wat een geweldig cadeau!
En de Toevanen, voor wie het getal 49 ook speciale betekenis heeft, duiken ook weer op haast magische wijze op. Zoals jullie weten hebben Toeva en haar inwoners mijn leven op allerlei manieren vorm gegeven. Toen ik halverwege het punt was waar ik nu ben, dus bijna 25 jaar oud, bezocht ik Toeva voor het eerst en raakte voorgoed verslingerd aan deze plek. 12 Jaar later ging ik naar Toeva met June en we ontdekten, toen en daar, dat we voorbestemd waren voor elkaar. Dat leidde dus tot ons huwelijk, kinderen en tenslotte mijn verhuizing naar Taiwan. Nog een levenswending waar Toeva haast een sturende hand in leek te hebben.
En wat is er nu aan de hand? Ik begon eerder dit jaar een aantal Toevaanse concerten te organiseren hier in Taiwan, en werd onder andere verzocht twee programma’s in te vullen voor het Asian Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. En vandaag (de laatste dag dat ik 49 ben) vertrekt de eerste Toevaanse groep, een jong kwartet genaamd Ezengi (nadat ze zich trouwens uitstekend gekweten hebben van hun taak). En morgen (de eerste dag dat ik 50 ben) arriveren er vier geweldige senior musici uit Toeva: Shonchalai en Nachyn Choodu, Andrei Öpei en Valerii Mongush. Toeval?
En dan was er nog iets dit jaar. Toen ik Toeva voor het eerst bezocht leerde ik een Scythisch ornament kennen, dat bij archeologische opgravingen gevonden was en dat bestaat uit een panter die in zijn staart bijt. Een prachtig symbool van oneindigheid en de eeuwigdurende cycli van gebeurtenissen. “Ma fin est mon commencement” zoals middeleeuwse dichters en musici als Guillaume de Machaut heel goed wisten. Dit voorjaar stuurde vriend en inspiratiebron Fons Elders een bericht rond met daarin zijn visie op dit symbool, dat bekend staat als oeroboros in de westerse wereld. Iets later trad ik op in de Oosterkerk in Amsterdam met een geweldige Turkse ney-speler, Sinan Arat, een concert dat ik liet opnemen op video (en waarvoor je de link onderaan vindt). Juist achter ons podium bevond zich . . . een mooie uit hout gesneden oeroboros. En dus besloot ik een aantal dagen geleden toen ik met de video bezig was om ons optreden Het Oeroboros Concert te noemen. De volgende dag (afgelopen zaterdag) nam ik de Toevaanse musici mee naar de oceaan (waar de Toevanen verder van verwijderd zijn dan zo’n beetje wie dan ook ter wereld). Ze wilden graag gaan surfen en zo ontdekte ik de tatoeage van zo’n Scytische oeroboros op de arm van Anchy Damdyn. Wat een geweldig idee! Nooit eerder had ik ook maar een seconde de gedachte gekoesterd dat een tatoeage voor mij zelf ook best interessant kon zijn.
Dus om even stil te staan bij dit bijzondere moment in mijn leven en uitdrukking te geven aan de dankbaarheid om een mens te zijn te midden van allerlei fantastische mensen met wie ik mij omringd weet, deel ik nu deze Oeroboros concertvideo met jullie.
