After a year spent touring the globe in support of their stunning third album, Antony and the Johnsons are capping off The Crying Light’s promo rounds in style. Not only have bandleader Antony Hegarty and company brought the tour to a close with orchestra-backed concerts in Australia this past week, but they are also set to perform in Japan for the first time ever, accompanied by Yoshito Ohno.
To bring this full circle, you should know that Ohno’s father, Kazuo Ohno, is a legendary 103-year-old Japanese Butoh dancer, whom Hegarty put on the brilliant covers to both The Crying Light LP and the Another World EP last year, dedicating the former to the inspirational artistic icon.
According to the Johnsons’ official site, Hegarty will perform two concerts in Tokyo later this week with Yoshito Ohno and the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio. Antony will also perform a live soundtrack to the final film in Chiago Nagano’s Ohno-starring trilogy, 1973’s Mr. O’s Book of the Dead.
It’s hard to imagine a more apropos way of ending The Crying Light tour, aside from this “little” bit about our favorite operatic singer/songwriter: “Hegarty also showcased a new song from the forthcoming album Swan Lights, ” writes Perth Now of his recent gig in the Western Australian city, “which he said would be out later in the year.”