April 2002

Photo Journal from Asia Promo Tour
or click on photos to enlarge

Dear Friends,

We have become very busy once again with the release of our new CD "Once In A Red Moon". The response so far has been great and we thank you all for your kind words and great support. Just back from a very intensive promo tour in Asia, where the CD is doing really well.

Began the tour in Japan where we stayed for almost a week. This was our first promo tour there , even though we have performed in Kyoto, in 1999. We stayed in the newest Hotel in Tokyo, which was lovely and very near a great shopping district! But as usual we didn’t have much time to check this out! Tokyo was at its best with the the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom, and we were fortunate to see them.

The first few days were very intensive with back-to-back interviews. These included press as well as magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, to the more Hi-Fi top musical journals. The journalists were so polite and well informed, it was a real pleasure speaking with them. We also covered radio and TV, including one great TV show which also included Alanis Morriset and Elvis Costello as musical guests.

Apart from the very intensive promotion of the CD one of the highlights in Japan was a days recording spent with the Japanese Ocarina artist Sojiro. We recorded 2 songs with him, which will be released in September. It was a wonderful experience to record together, and proves again the powers of music to communicate. Sojiro spoke no English and we spoke no Japanese. They also filmed the recording as part of a promo documentary on Sojiro.

After Japan we flew to Hong Kong. It was great to meet our friends from Universal again , especially Raymond Law. This was our 5th trip to H.K. and wonderful as always. We took our two singers Jan Werner Danielsen and Jorunn Erdal, and sound engineer Trond Engebretsen up to the Peak for dinner, which is always worth a visit. But unfortunately there was a dense fog that evening so not much was to be seen. We had a wonderful time anyway. The promo in HK was also very packed with a lot of great interviews for TV, press and Radio.

One of the highlights of this trip was when the brilliant Chinese Erhu-player Ding Fei Fei joined us on one of our performances. She played Nocturne and Belonging (from the new CD. Again it was a real moment to be able to perform together and we hope we can work with her again. Also on that night we were presented with an award for 500,000 sales in HK and China, which was a big surprise for us.



From Hong Kong we flew to Taipei. Had a wonderful welcome there both by the Universal staff, as well as the Hotel. They put an amazing promo schedule together for us, it was so packed we didn’t think it was possible to complete it all. Everyday began early and continued right through to late in the evening, covering TV, radio and press as well as performances.

Some of the highlights were the opening press reception in the spa where we planted a flower with the special flower girls. The managing director of Universal Music also gave us 2 wonderful Chinese musical instruments as a gift. We have them back home now and really treasure them. On our last day in Taipei they even organised a teacher to give us a lesson on how to play. We will need loads of practise, as the sounds we made were pretty awful!

Other highlights in Taiwan were having the opportunity to perform a 1 hour live TV show with full audience. This was a very intimate setting and it was a great feeling for Rolf and I to have this opportunity to perform some of the new songs with just violin and piano.We also performed a street showcase and the amount of fans that showed up in the rain was amazing!

We had the opportunity to meet winners of special competitions that were held prior to our visit. One of those special meetings was with young violin and piano players. They played for us, which was marvellous, and we had time to work a little with them also. Hope to see some of them on the concert stage in the years to come!

Our last day in Taipei, as we were getting ready to leave, a huge earthquake erupted measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale. As this was our first experience of one, it was very frightening and we were lucky to be in a new hotel, which was built to withstand these quakes. Even though the sound of crashing glass around us, and the earth literally moving under ones feet, makes us realise how small we really are! More horrifying was to see on the local channel the sheer devastation out on the streets with buildings collapsing and people getting killed. We hope that Taipei has recovered, and life is getting back to normal again.

We are now packing our bags again for our next trip, which will include the UK and the US, followed by rehearsals with the band for our up coming Korean Tour.

We hope you enjoy the pictures and will be keep you informed on our travels.

We have also just completed the new Piano and Violin book of the New CD and Its been printed now as we write. It will be ready for orders from April 22.

All the best,

Fionnuala and Rolf