http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom
Longstone are releasing a brand new studio album " 桜 ( Sakura ) " to raise money for survivors of the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami . All proceeds from the sale of the CD will be donated to relief projects in Japan with manufacturing costs and expenses being covered by the band. Please check the other pages on this blog and the Monchicamera links in the side bar for information of where the money will be donated.
" 桜 ( Sakura ) " will be released as a very limited numbered edition of just 100 copies . The disc will be housed in a seven inch single sized hand printed sleeve containing art prints , photographs and other inserts to create a very special package .
The cost of the package is £15 , think of this as a minimum donation as we will pass on every penny we collect so feel free to pay more if you wish. Mail order can be arranged ( postage will be £2 ) . We can process credit cards via Badlands Records who will take no money for the service.
We also have some very limited hand printed " 桜 ( Sakura ) " T-shirts available please get in touch if you are interested .
If you would like me to reserve you a copy of the CD please send me a message and I'll get back to you to arrange payment and delivery etc.
There are many people to thank for their involvement in getting this album ready so quickly .... (releasing a new CD usually takes months .) Special thanks are due to Chie Konishi for designing and printing the sleeve , Steve Moody for designing the disc artwork and label logo , Sarah Meantime for T-Shirts and sleeve printing , Yukari Maller for Japanese translations , Chris Cundy for pen and ink drawing , Badlands records for allowing me to print some of the inserts and thin White for design assistance . There are more of you so thanks to everyone else who has helped in some way.
On Friday 11th march 2011 the North East coastal region of Japan was struck by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami with a maximum recorded height of 124 feet which travelling at frightening speed destroyed everything in it's path up to 10 km inland. As of the 23rd April the Japanese National police agency report 14,416 people dead , 5,314 injured and 11,889 people reported as missing . This is almost certainly an underestimation as it is based on actual bodies recovered and people reported missing by relatives. Many bodies will remain undiscovered and many people have no one left to report them missing.
However it is the survivors of the disaster that need to be thought about now . It is estimated that over 300,000 people with as many of 100,000 of them being children are now refugees with everything they had being swept away by the sea. It’s impossible to imagine the scale of the destruction or the size of the task to rebuild. The relief effort will take years and they do need every penny they can get. Longstone have many Japanese friends and associates living in both Japan and the U.K. Sakura is our small way of trying to help and show them we care.
thanks very much
Mike and Mike
more details can be found at the following links
www.longstoned.com
http://www.wavetable.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/longstone
http://longstoned.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Longstone/35010211805
