John Cale setlists 1994

Prague 1994-06-05

Live at the Archa Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic - June 5, 1994. Festive opening of the Archa Theatre in Prague, collaborating with the Japanese dancer Min Tanaka. The show was filmed for Czech TV and broadcasted in 1995.

Setlist

pre-recorded + live improv #1
Grandfather's House
Riverbank
pre-recorded + live improv #2
Chinese Envoy
Broken Hearts
Cordoba
Spoken word piece about water
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
pre-recorded + live improv #3 with a disharmonic guitar solo

In the course of the evening, a word about the not-so-easy communication of different cultures sounded in the opening short speech of the director of the Archa Theatre Ondrej Hrab. John Cale had a relatively easier situation, as he only introduced his music to a confrontation - a momentary reaction for Tanaka was precise. For the greater part, Cale alternated the pre-recorded compositions with live performances of a piano repertoire including his most recent works (Chinese Envoy, Broken Hearts,...) and one (completely disharmonic) guitar solo to a pre-recorded composition. At first it seemed that the expression of the much more proportionate in the shadows of the intensity of expressions of the milder and entirely more abstract Min Tanaka was exposed to a confrontation of everything that came into his world from elsewhere - the gradually brought attention to a stronger experience that was strongly built on communication. The absolutely concentrated Tanaka (for several years, he was holder of the title Best Dancer in the Empire) gradually wandered through the evening. He started with barely visible movements, and near the end, he was already responding to the rhythm of the piano. At the end, John Cale acknowledged that the evening emerged from both sides: the meditation, the supple improvisation on the borders of harmony and disharmony was a magical approach to the exact imprint of the present moment.