Kazuki Tomokawa

Live Videos in Tokyo Dec. 2009 with Gaspar Claus

modest-launch — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:44:56 +0000

Kazuki Tomokawa Live at Star Pine’s Cafe

Filmed and Edited by Toshio Nagashima, Masaki Yanagida

Sounds by Kenichi Takigawa

Created by Modest Launch

Shot in Tokyo, Japan, December 2009

2010.Apr.1 ( Tokyo, Japan )

modest-launch — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:06:21 +0000

* Title : Kazuki Tomokawa Solo Live

* Act : Kazuki Tomokawa(Vo,Gt )

* Date : 2010.Apr. 1 (tue)

* Place : Show Boat (Tokyo) http://www.showboat.co.jp

* Time : Open 7:00 pm / Start 7:30 pm

* Price : Adv. 3,000 yen / Door 3,500 yen ( not including 1 drink )

* Ticket : Show Boat http://www.showboat.co.jp

2010.Mar.14 ( Tokyo, Japan )

modest-launch — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:45:51 +0000

* Title : Kazuki Tomokawa Apia 40 Live

* Act : Kazuki Tomokawa, Masato Nagahata (piano,mandolin, accordion), Toshiaki Ishizuka (drums)

* Date : 2010. Mar.14 (Sun)

* Place : Apia 40 (Tokyo) http://www.apia-net.com

* Time : Open 6:30 pm / Start 7pm

* Price : Adv. 3,000 yen / Door 3,500 yen ( not including 1drink)

* Ticket : Apia 40 (Tokyo) TEL 03-3715-4010 http://www.apia-net.com

2010.Feb.7 ( Tokyo, Japan )

modest-launch — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:21:49 +0000

Sold Out !

* Title : Kazuki Tomokawa Apia 40 Live

* Act : Kazuki Tomokawa, Masato Nagahata (piano,mandolin, accordion), Toshiaki Ishizuka (drums)

* Date : 2010.Feb.7 (Sun)

* Place : Apia 40 (Tokyo) http://www.apia-net.com

* Time : Open 6:30 pm / Start 7pm

* Price : Adv. 3,000 yen / Door 3,500 yen ( not including 1drink)

* Ticket : Apia 40 (Tokyo) TEL 03-3715-4010 http://www.apia-net.com

An article about Kazuki Tomokawa has appeared in a French magazine

horisan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:50:01 +0000

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Kazuki TOMOKAWA “A Bumpkin’s Empty Bravado“ PSF. Dist : Forced Exposure
Texte par Michel HENRITZI pour “REVUE & CORRIGEE” #82, Decembre 2009
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Kazuki TOMOKAWA est un classique, j’entends par là qu’il porte l’essence de la musique japonaise, ce qui la ronge ou l’illumine. Plongez sans plus tarder dans son oeuvre, aussi vitale que l’air aux poumons, aussi sombre qu’une nuit sans lune, aussi poisseuse que les blues de Blind Willie Johnson. La musique de TOMOKAWA naît du deuil du temps qui fuit, de la mélancolie du présent, de ce qui manque et ne reviendra pas. Sa voix posée sur le fil d’un rasoir, écorchée, hantée, pleine d’amour et de violence.
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Figure fantôme de l’underground japonais, ombre titubante et fracturée, fragile et brûlée, et cette voix ! Putain de voix comme peu de folklore en porte, où la mélancolie se brise sur le cri d’Artaud le Momo, expressionniste, sauvage, rock n’roll, il faut remonter à Jacques Brel ou Iggy Pop pour danser sur le verre pillé de cette façon. Folk singer brûlé, habité, insoumis, façon Cash sous amphétamines, lui préférant l’eau de feu, partageant avec l’autre la nuit et ses prières. La guitare de TOMOKAWA est faite de dentelles pour être déchirées, d’arpèges manouches cassés, violentés, sa main est celle d’un suicidé, s’ouvrant les veines sur les cordes, le sang sur le sol.
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Vincent Moon vient de réaliser un film magnifique sur lui : “La Faute des Fleurs“, tourné à Osaka sur les dépouilles d’un monde flottant. Quelques extraits sont visibles sur ce lien :
http://www.blogotheque.net/Kazuki-Tomokawa,5100
Moins une vision qu’une hallucination, on n’en sort pas indemne, TOMOKAWA endosse la peau d’un yokai* hurleur dans ce qui semble une maison abandonnée, reste nos fantômes et cette voix pour les chanter.
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Un disque pour entrer dans son univers d’une infinie mélancolie et d’une insoutenable beauté.
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* entité surnaturelle et familière du Japon

An article about Kazuki Tomokawa has appeared in a French magazine

horisan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:30:22 +0000

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“Sa voix posée sur le fil d’un rasoir, écorchée, hantée, pleine d’amour et de violence. Figure fantôme de l’underground japonais, ombre titubante et fracturée, fragile et brûlée, et cette voix ! …. ”
Text by Michel HENRITZI, appeared in ‘REVUE & CORRIGEE‘ #82 December 2009
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<< Read the whole article in French here

‘La Faute des Fleurs’ at IN-EDIT NESCAFÉ in Chile

horisan — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:00:56 +0000

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La Faute des Fleurs was presented at The International Documentary Musical Film Festival IN-EDIT NESCAFÉ in Chile.

2009.Dec.26 ( Tokyo, Japan )

modest-launch — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:04:03 +0000

* Title : Kazuki Tomokawa Solo Live

* Act : Kazuki Tomokawa(Vo,Gt )

* Date : 2009.Dec.26(Sat)

* Place : Show Boat (Tokyo) http://www.showboat.co.jp/top.html

* Time : Open 6:30 pm / Start 7pm

* Price : Adv. 3,000 yen / Door 3,500 yen

* Ticket : Show Boat http://www.showboat.co.jp/top.html

Live Videos in Osaka Feb. 2009 with Gaspar Claus

modest-launch — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:34:40 +0000

“La Faute de Fleurs – a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa“ Outtakes series
A Film by Vincent Moon
will be released in 2010

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Shot in Osaka, Japan, February 2009
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modest-launch — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:38:47 +0000

The screaming philosopher

It was in the middle of the summer 2008, I received a long email from a Japanese ‘fan’. Looked like it was just some lovely words, advising me to film a Japanese musician, a certain rare folk artist named Tomokawa something. It took me 4 more months to re-read the email until the end – and discover that this fan was actually inviting me to Japan to make a movie about his idol.

We went there for 2 weeks, in March 2009, and this filming experience was by far the most important of my life. Kazuki Tomokawa, that’s his name, 59 years old man, at first the exact idea you could get of a cinema character straight from a yakuza movie, a guitar in his hand and a scream in his mouth. But then the camera allows you to explore more and makes you discover the multiple layers of his existence and belief in life, his past as an actor for Oshima or Miike, his passion for bike race gambling, his unstoppable addiction to alcohol, his amazing skills as a painter, and his troubled past with his son, you soon got the feeling there’s only one Kazuki Tomokawa. As there was only one Rimbaud.

The other day, while working on the edit of ‘La Faute des Fleurs’, a friend of mine was helping to translate certain sequences. At some point, she would suddenly burst into tears. At the question what happened, she turned to me and said, “it’s the way he speaks… he is like a poem”.

Tomokawa, the screaming philosopher.

October 2009, Vincent Moon

< Musicians of Our Times, Episode 2 >
La Faute des Fleurs — a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa

A film by Vincent Moon

With Kazuki Tomokawa

Eito Nozoki (Son), Naoki Ohzeki (Manager), Tetsuo Ito (Owner of APIA 40), Hideo Ikeezumi (Producer, PSF Records), Masato Kato (Writer), Yasuki Fukushima (Poet), Toshiaki Ishizuka (Musician, Zuno-Keisatsu), Masato Nagahata (Musician, Pascals)

Story by Teresa Eggers and Vincent Moon
Sounds by Gaspar Claus and Teresa Eggers
Mix by Gaspar Claus
Edited by Vincent Moon and Lucas Archambault
Produced by Temporary Areas and Modest Launch

Japanese with English subtitle / 2009 / Japan / Color / 70min.

Sound and Vision Award 2009 winner at Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH: DOX 2009)

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www.lafautedesfleurs.com

All photos by vincent moon for ‘La Faute des Fleurs’

Taking it’s name from the Tomokawa album ‘Fault of Flowers‘ (1993 / PSF RECORD) , the album ‘La Faute des Fleurs’ is his first solo record after a seven year hiatus. The record features the song ‘My Flower’, inspired by Norio Nagayama’s poem ‘Muchi no namida’ (Tears of ignorance).

Vincent Moon wins Sound and Vision Award 2009 at Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival for ‘La Faute des Fleurs’.

A very moving film about a true artist! I can’t remember the last time I saw such a beautiful documentary.
This is what we said when we presented the award at the show Saturday night:
The jury sat in the cinema together. As the film ended, the silence from having experienced something unique and complete, left us for a while with no words. Filed by emotions – nothing to add. Then someone whispered in the dark ‘I think we have a winner’ and the rest of us agreed on the spot.

This is a film that goes beyond musical taste, and right in to the human soul.

The filmmaker leads us with his precise and sensitive camera through a beautiful, poetic and ruthless journey of a man driven to create by his inner demons.

It’s skillfully edited, fluid in structure but still with a narrative voice. It gives the insight to an inspiring artist, and the man behind the art.
And respectfully reveals the pains and consequences for living as an outsider to the norms of society.

17th Nov. 2009, Kenneth Nguyen