Alicia Bay Laurel's 12 concert tours in Japan, starting in 2006, brought her into collaboration with many other musicians, dancers, and event producers, resulting in some astonishing events, most notably an all-day peace music festival conceived and coordinated by Kaoriko Ago Wada, the designer/owner of organic fiber/fair trade fashion company, Little Eagle, with whom Alicia collaborated both as performer at Ago Wada's dance-based fashion exhibitions, and as illustrator for many of Little Eagle's printed clothing and accessories, starting in 2008.
This album features three of Alicia's performances at the peace music festival, staged at ground zero in Hiroshima on August 8, 2015, during the week of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Also included here are Alicia's duet with legendary traditional Japanese vocalist, Ikue Asazaki, and the first public performance of kumu hula Miho Ogura's choreography of Alicia's song Ukulele Hula, danced by Miho and five of her halau (troupe), accompanied by Alicia singing and playing the song with Kathie and Keni Inoue of the Inoue Ohana Band.
The cover drawing, Amaterasu Seen From Mori Tower by Alicia Bay Laurel, depicts the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu appearing over central Tokyo as a cloud lifting the sun from the eastern horizon across the bay. The orange and white Eiffel-Tower-like Tokyo Tower, a television tower, stands directly between Mori Tower, a residential sky scraper in the Roppongi area, and Tokyo harbor. The art gallery that sold this drawing is in the building next to Mori Tower. The graphic design of the CD packaging is also by Alicia Bay Laurel, with digital layout by Hoshi Hana.
The photos of Alicia Bay Laurel and Ikue Asazaki are by Kensuke Ishii. The costumes worn by Alicia Bay Laurel and Ikue Asazaki in these photos were created by Kaoriko Ago Wada for Little Eagle, her organic fiber, fair trade fashion company, based in Nishio, near Nagoya, Japan.
Alicia Bay Laurel - Live in Japan: Listener Response