Yoko Ono must surely be an earth angel sent to stop us in our tracks every now and then with her music, her art, her poetic words of wisdom, to contemplate everything. Following decades of prolific album releases (twenty albums in fifty years, don’t you know) she’s about to share her new project, Warzone, and this one’s different. On listening to the thirteen songs taken from across her discography and reimagined, minimally and verging on mournfully for 2018, it becomes scarily apparent that very few of the world’s issues have changed since the first incarnations of the music were heard as early as 1970.
“The world is so messed up,” said 85-year-old Yoko in a recent press release. “Things are very difficult for everybody. It’s a warzone that we are living in.” Indeed. But her Warzone serves as a space for reflection, a reminder that it’s not too late and that there’s always hope. The music is solemn at times, sure, but it’s also lullaby-like, holding us tight through these troublesome times.
It is with great pleasure then, that we present an exclusive first listen of Warzone’s I Love You Earth. Taken from Yoko’s 1986 record Starpeace, this version is a delicate piano piece for peace; her love letter to our world. To celebrate the release, Yoko’s dear friend ANOHNI — who has previously duetted on moving renditions of the single — asked her some thought-provoking and Very Yoko Ono questions. “Yoko is brave,” Anohni told us over email as she shared the below conversation. “She disarms with her honesty. She brings hope.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
A: If you had a hole and could fill it with anything in the world, what would you put in it?
Y: A message of love.
A: What do you do when you are feeling blue?
Y: I enjoy being blue.
A: If you could choose, how many eyes would you like to have?
Y: I can only take care of two eyes.
A: Earth, water, wind or fire?
Y: Earth.
A: How does blue get into the sea?
Y: I’m always wondering about that too. It doesn’t have to be a big ocean, a little puddle after the rain, you see that it reflects the blue of sky.
A: Each hair contains a memory. Which memory do you choose today?
Y: Love.
A: How many times would you cross the river and how would you do it?
Y: I’d choose a very safe bridge.
A: If you could choose to live life as something new, what form would you take?
Y: I’m choosing something new everyday.
A: What is the best thing to say to the jungle?
Y: We are invading your territory, and that’s how we get your beautiful oxygen. I’d just like to thank you.
A: Where should we put poison?
Y: I want the world to be so healthy that nothing will be a poison.
A: How should I address my own hypocrisy as someone who pollutes so much of the earth I love?
Y: We are now being given a very difficult situation. But one day what we are doing to the earth will become a benefit to our globe.
A: Is it important to have hope all the time?
Y: We do have hope all the time, otherwise you wouldn’t be breathing.
Warzone will be released on 19 October via Sean Ono Lennon’s Chimera Music