FUNDRAISING UPDATE + FIRST JAPAN TOUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY

November 6, 2026 § Leave a comment

Dear everyone

I am having real trouble finding the energy to update this page, not because I don’t care, but because there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day and enough energy in 50-year-old me to maintain this website after more than 23 years of existence while also living my life as fully as possible. But i do want to share the post I wrote last week (published on my Instagram, which is a little easier to maintain) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my first Japanese tour, and since it’s Bandcamp Friday today, I’ll also update you here about my fundraising initiatives.

BANDCAMP FRIDAY UPDATE

Last round of fundraising was actually 2 months ago, and today, just as last month, I am *not* actively fundraising, pretty much for the same reason I’m having trouble updating this page: fundraising takes a lot of time and energy (more than we would typically think) and it needs to be done with seriousness and dedication, by contacting the organizations beforehand, communicating across all my platforms on the given day, doing precise calculations afterwards, and last but not least sending the money, which can sometimes turn out to be really difficult, as I learnt back in September with the Indian organization I had chosen and which could only receive money from within India (it took me a month to find someone who was able to do it on my behalf).

I also think I burnt out this year with figures and organization in general, due to my tour, which I booked all by myself, but also my dad’s passing, which took me and my mum into a small administrative labyrinth which anyone who has lost a loved one will be familiar with. In any case, if you feel like donating today, you can be sure that the money you send will *always* be kept for subsequent donations, as this is a lifelong commitment I’ve made with these recordings.

SEPTEMBER RESULTS: across all projects, $640.77 collected on Bandcamp Friday 4th September, $729.68 collected in total taking into account the preceding month ❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏
553.83$ for animal shelters: $276.91 to @mashalashelter $276.91 to @skysanctuaryrescue
+ $88.91 collected the previous month to @lasalmasdetara (repeat donation to this Spanish organization I love very much)
$86.94 for “Special Versions” to @doctorswithoutborders

I share here my favourite “Amor”, but there are also other songs and recordings clearly labelled FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS and FOR HUMANITARIAN CAUSES if you’d like to give a listen, and of course, it’s also a great day to buy my albums too (in physical format, please remember that my Bandcamp ships from the US, so sadly this is not ideal for non-US customers).

FIRST JAPAN TOUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY

📷 with Bridget @bridgetstjohn and stained glass artist Safumi Tokunaga, Osaka

20 years ago, I embarked on my first Japanese tour, my first time ever in Japan, such an important event on my artistic and personal journey that I want to take the time to commemorate it today.
A few months earlier, I had received the most extraordinary email from a person completely unknown to me, Kazuki Tomita, who ran the Windbell label: he had dreamt – literally – that Colleen and legendary UK folk artist Bridget St John were on a tour of Japan together, and when he woke up, he decided to write to both of us. We both accepted.
I had just obtained my sabbatical from my teaching job and was about to record my third album Les ondes silencieuses: it is no coincidence that it’s my most minimal and minimalist album (below 2 tracks recorded live during the tour, that didn’t make it on the final album but were included on the CD release of Windbell in 2007 and are available on my Bandcamp), and I believe traditional Japanese aesthetics and concepts still influence my life and work.

I fell in love with Japan during the course of these slightly surreal 9 days that basically consisted in letting ourselves be guided to and inside the cities we were playing: Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Tokyo where we played 2 shows.
On the tour were 2 other Japanese artists, Kama Aina and Moose Hill, and in Osaka we were joined by mama! milk.
People’s generosity (audience members bringing personally-made presents at the end of the shows, friends of friends who welcomed us or cooked for us, Moto our driver…), the food, the attention to detail in everything, the traditional beauty of Kyoto and Ohara nearby, the authenticity of Tokyo’s Yanaka, and the pure luck of Moto driving us to his favorite place, Hasegawa Museum, on the way from Kyoto to Mount Fuji, one of the most stunning places I’ve ever had the chance to visit, with a magical grey cat and the most beautiful elderly couple…
I also fell in love with the world of ceramics on that trip, which served me well when I went through a dry musical period just a couple of years later, as learning ceramics in Paris basically kept me sane through this uncomfortable period.
20 years later I still feel grateful 30-year-old me got so incredibly lucky.
Thank you so much Kazuki Tomita and my travel companions ❤

📷 my press photo by Erik Madigan Heck @nomenusmag

📷 by Takuji Aoyagi @takujiaoyagi (aka Kama Aina)
Ohara temple: listening to suikinkutsu
Lower pic: Yuko and Kosuke from mama! milk @mamamilk_info

📷 by Takuji Aoyagi @takujiaoyagi
Ohara group pic: Motomitsu Maehara @motomitsu_maehara, Kosuke of mama! milk, Takuji aka Kama Aina, Goro aka Moose Hill, Kazuki Tomita, me, Bridget St John

I wrote a daily diary during the trip on this lovely notebook

Ohara

Ohara lithophone, incredibly elegant Yuko of @mamamilk_info

The Japanese double CD edition released by Windbell for the tour: The Golden Morning Breaks + Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique

Hasegawa Museum
That couple…
It is (update: was… apparently it closed a year ago) a contemporary art museum, cafe and antiques boutique, in the most stunning location by the sea…
Moto @motomitsu_maehara looking at the beautiful handmade paper they gave me, along with the lotus flower (I bought the golden lotus box.. cherish it to this day)