blog

3月の始め、私はウクライナのレーベルquasipopから依頼されたCDを制作していた
アルバムのタイトルは「Flax」(亜麻の事)になる予定だった
亜麻の種子は食物繊維を豊富に含み水分と解け合う事で乳化して 卵の代替品として
ベジタリアン菓子などでも利用されている
その亜麻をテーマにしたいというのがレーベル当初の意向であった

その作品の録音中に大地震が起こった
そして最終ミックスの日に福島原発一号機が水素爆発を起こした

そういえばウクライナにはチェルノブイリがあった
quasipopの拠点キエフから車で一時間ほどだという 
そして、今年はチェルノブイリ原発事故から25周年である

我々は急遽このアルバムを「反原発」をテーマにしたものにしようと決めた

チェルノブイリの写真をジャケットに使うことにした





レーベルのオーナーのエドワードは撮影の翌日にこう書いている

Yesterday (on Sunday) I was in Chernobyl zone with 2 my friend who were doing fotos. It wasn't really easy to get everywhere in 10 km restricted zone , so we were traveling on military car with 2 guards, very limited in time. The lost city Pripiat' is most intersting place, but it on 99% already occupied by wild trees, almost impossible to get exess deeper in the city without special wear/gear. Most of the houses already broken and there's a constant danger for 5 or 9-floor buildings to be fallen soon. Anyway, we did some fotos in Pripiat & Chernobyl.
I'm really depressed with that trip, though it's the Realm of Trees now, but the energy (we are Orthodox Christians here called it God's Spirit or maybe you know the Vedic word Pranayama or Chinese people call it Tzi energy), so that energetic fields are very wrapped, somewhere it's just terrifying emptiness, somewhere it's dangerously vibrating - very unhuman feeling, it's not like you feel yourself in the usual village or on the wild field, not like in the city.




photos by Ira Solomykina, Pavel Shevchuk and Alexander Khaverchuk


チェルノブイリの半径30キロ圏内の居住禁止区域では自然が復活し
野生動物も繁栄しているという
人間のいなくなった世界で動物たちは狩猟に追われることもない
楽園のような日々をおくっている
しかし動物たちは今でも高い放射能にさらされて汚染された草を食べ続けている
人間は野生動物たちも避難させるべきなのだろうか?
むろんそんなことは不可能だ

福島でも動物たちは受難している
政府は家畜の皆殺しを指示した
農家はなんとかして金になる大型家畜は守ろうとする
たぶんニワトリたちのような金にならない家畜は置き去りで
野犬の餌になった
家畜のサンクチュアリ計画が打ち出されれば
どこかから被災動物たちを動物実験にしようという声がきこえてくる
糞利権! 糞人間!糞原発!
 


"The multi-billions tras-international concerns think we want more and more cars, computers and mobile phones. For offering all these crap to us for cheap, they need more and more cheap energy. They want more nuclear power plants around the Globe, which are powerfull and good in making money, but this technology is extremely dangerous for the people and for our planet. To get a cheap plastic junk today, we are agree to kill our child's future. We have already had two colossal nuclear disasters in only last 25 years: Chernobyl (Ukraine) in 1986 and Fukushima (Japan) in 2011. There are lots of information everywhere about the consequences of both and do we really need more proofs? Japanese noise musician Masami Akita recorded CD "Dead Zone" in March 2011, the day of the first explosion of Fukushima Nuclear power plant. This CD is dedicated to the worldwide anti-nuclear movement. Please, stop nuclear madness. We don't need more and more power. We don't want progress like this. We'd rather make step back to the past to protect our kid's future. Please stop all working power plants, do not build any new. We don't want to kill our home. Please stop." (Message from quasipop)

 quasipop.org

musiquemachine

 

4月11日成田、
搭乗口へ行くと「フランクフルト」直行便のはずが
何故か「フランクフルト/ソウル」と書いてある
いやな予感が...

横ではオーストリア航空が乗客に放射能測定検査をしている
被爆線量の高い乗客の搭乗はお断りするのだそうだ

搭乗すると「途中ソウルへ寄って給油する」というアナウンスがある
何故そうなったのかという説明は一切なし
震災の影響で成田では給油する燃料が足りないのだろうか?

ソウル経由でなんだかんだ4時間の遅れ
私はフランクフルトでブリュッセル行きに乗り換えるのだが
到着後1時間半の余裕があったのでセーフ
 

後で知ったがルフトハンザ機がソウル経由した本当の理由は
パイロットと客室乗務員らをソウルで交代させる為だった
 
まずフランクフルトからソウルへ飛んで交代
ソウル/成田を往復して交代
ソウルからフランクフルトへ飛んでまた交代..
そうする事で彼らは東京に滞在しなくてすむ
つまりルフトハンザは社員たちを放射能汚染の危機下にある
日本に滞在させたくなかったのだ

だから乗客にはソウル経由の詳しい説明は一切なし
少しムカツク



 




 ブリュッセル名物ゴシック広場


 
 ブリッセルab boxの楽屋



 
プタペストA38は客船を改造したクラブだった


 
  大聖堂




公衆浴場


 
「アノニマス」と呼ばれているブラックメタル風の正体不明な男の像
 この近所の広場にニューロシスがジャケに使った馬の彫像もある


 
国立美術館


  

セント・ガレン　palaceの楽屋は元映画館の映写室

 
楽屋の冷蔵庫の中のvegan Foods




 
カトヴィーチェoff festival clubの楽屋のvegan Foods

Merzbow Interview on 'Kochen Ohne Knochen' #04 (01/2011)

- why/when did you become a vegetarian? any developes towards vegan lifestyle?

It was around 2002, I started raising four bantams, the little ornamental chickens. With this experience as a start, I gradually started to be concerned and care about chickens and all the barn animals I used to eat without giving it a second thought before. So I started reading books and researching on the internet about Animal Rights and that triggered an awareness of “evil” that human society has done. And that’s how I became a Vegan.

- can you tell me about vegetarian culture in japan nowadays and in history?

Vegetarian culture in Japan is widely taken in terms of food culture and health. Japan has a history of brown rice and organic vegetable consumption. But the vegetarian culture nowadays owes a great deal with re-import of Macrobiotic, which originally Yukikazu Sakurazawa (aka George Ohsawa) and Michio Kushi popularized oversea. While it has a large following among the rich, we hardly see any ideas and concepts of Animal Rights at the root of this kind of vegetarian culture. On the other hand in other countries, although Macrobiotic is accepted by also celebrities such as Madonna, still there is culture of Animal Rights as well. That’s the big difference between vegetarian culture in Japan and in other countries.

Going back to ancient times in Japan, influenced by Buddhism, successive emperors were vegetarians in much the same way as Animal Rights activists are. Since 7th century, the emperors would impose frequent orders to prohibit eating meat due to Buddhism teachings “Not to eat meat of the animal”. Since then, the Japanese diet was mainly based on rice. The eating of meat was tabooed and hated until the United States came to open the country in 19th century. They eventually started to force habits of eating meat on people and consequently even the emperor accepted it and became a meat eater. Eating meat became more and more common as the westernization of Japan went on.

- is there a vegan movement, too?

There’s no really a movement, except very few individuals and NPOs who have been working to advocate Vegan and Animal Rights.

- are vegetarians established or is it more like a subculture? is it connected with political positions?

As I mentioned, vegetarians are established as food culture but not so much in a political sense such as Animal Rights.
Anti whaling campaign by Greenpeace, and 'The Cove' a documentary film about dolphin hunting in Japan have been hot topics these years. Although these issues have caused controversy to question the need for commercial whaling which is being carried out by the Japanese government as a national policy, they have not discussed the problem of whaling as Vegetarian or Animal Rights issues. In other words, for most Japanese the whaling issue is nothing more than a matter of nationalism. But it never comes down to a fundamental question over Vegetarians or Animal Rights.

- can you tell me about your book? what's it all about? why did you write it? how are the feedbacks? any chances/plans for english or german or other translations and releases?

I published a book called “Watashi no Saishokuseikatsu” (Cruelty Free Life) in 2005. It is about why I became a Vegan, my everyday life with animals, relationship with the animals and my work as a musician, basic background knowledge about Vegan and Animal Rights, recipes for Vegan dishes. It also talks about the history of the prohibition of eating meat in Japan. No release plans for overseas at the moment. 

-you are active for animal rights- in which way? can you tell about animal shelter in japan? what are your personal aims?

So far I have participated in demonstrations or protest activities held by PETA and ARC (Animal Rights Center), an animal rights group in Japan. I think it is important to promote thoughts and ideas of Animal Rights and Vegan through my musical activities. For this I have not only released my works on the subject but also put leaflets regarding Animal Rights into mail-order packages, or put PETA stickers on my equipments.

I don’t really know about animal shelters in Japan in detail but I assume there are some individuals and small-scale NPOs to take care for mainly cats and dogs. 

-you live with animals? which ones? can you tell about your everyday life with them? are they family members fr you, or how oes it feel for you(them)? when you are touring, who takes care for them? can you tell about your relationship towards animals in your life, did it change from childhood to now?

Currently I have bantams, fantails pigeons, Ukokkei fowls (silky fowl) and duck. Some of them were brought in from hospitals and other activists.
They are domestic poultry as well as ornamental birds. I keep them in a pergola. They are part of my family. While I’m away on tour, my family takes care of them.

-in what kind your arts are connected with animals (f e the bird serials or cds which have some animal shelter topics (i have the one about whaling...and on a lot of the covers are animals, right? is this concept? i found out: (my) children love the merzbow covers, like "merzbeat" or "dolphin sonar" or the one with the wulf...)

All the arts I have done since I became a Vegan have to do with animals. In other words, my creative activities are a part of Vegan-Animal Rights activities as well. From the standpoint of a Vegan, I also promote antismoking campaign as in concert venues are made into completely smoke-free and alert people not to smoke while walking.

Interview by Andre Pluskwa

kochen ohne knochen