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experiments in music

Test Tone vol. 64

Test Tone 64 flyer

Sound Experiments

Test Tone 64: Material Boundaries of the Song and the Dance

December 14th, 2010 (Tuesday) 20:00 to 25:00 at Super Deluxe, Nishi Azabu, Tokyo.

Tetuzi Akiyama + Cal Lyall

Tetuzi Akiyama + Cal Lyall Part-iconoclast, part-bluesman, and one of the leading players in modern Japanese improvisation, Tetuzi Akiyama has taken his guitar far and wide, gaining a large international following while influencing countless younger musicians in the process. With a certain stark minimalism, Akiyama forged a name for himself in the onkyo scene in the late 1990s with the likes of Otomo Yoshihide and Toshimaru Nakamura. These days, he explores the full resonance of his instrument from a myriad of musical gateways, from primitavist leanings to drone and even some hypnotic guitar boogie.

On this evening he'll be joined by improvising artist and electronic musician Cal Lyall (Tetragrammaton, Jahiliyyah), who will shed his characteristic layers of drone for a downtuned guitar duo of some (very loose) blues lassitude.

Tetuzi Akiyama

Cal Lyall

Yukitomo Hamasaki + shotahirama + Go Koyashiki

Yukitomo Hamasaki + shotahirama + Go KoyashikiA growing concern, Yukitomo Hamasaki's minimalist sound and design imprint mAtter has expanded to include a new generation of artists, two of whom have become recent collaborators in a number of projects. By joining forces with Go Koyashiki and shotahirama, both accomplished composers in their own right, Hamasaki has created something of a movement within the current Japanese scene. Blending intuitive improvisation with electronic composition, their previous performances have often been set to evocative photography, capturing minimalist patterns in the urban soundscape.

As their international activity picks up, it is getting harder to catch all of these fine artists in one sitting. It might do you well to check in on team mAtter while they are still in town.

Yukitomo Hamasaki

shotahirama

Go Koyashiki

Cyril Hernandez (from France)

Cyril HernandezPercussionist and multimedia artist Cyril Hernandez explores the way our bodies interact with space, using elements of choreography, installation and inventive musicianship to create captivating work that transcends artistic boundaries.

As a performing artist, Cyril seeks to communicate with a wide audience, preferring public spaces and environments for his work. He engages viewers by pulling them into his performance with circus sideshow aplomb, while at the same time hoodwinking them to eventually reveal the greater complexity lurking within his visual and rhythmic ideas.

Jean-François Laporte (from Québec)

Jean-François LaporteIntegrating visual art and sound exploration, Québécois artist Jean-François Laporte has been an influential figure on the contemporary art scene since the mid-1990s. Taking an intuitive approach to creating music, Laporte has learned his art through concrete experimentation on matter, actively listening to each sound, object or material. Much of his work is the result of working with raw material, devising simple yet ingenious constructions born of each material he explores.

Receiving his fifth "Prix Opus" last year, Laporte was named "Facteur d'Instrument de Musique de l'Année" by the CQM (Conseil Québécois de la Musique). This gives timely recognition to the quality of Laporte's work and the importance his visionary musical inventions.

Jean-François Laporte

Evil Penguin

Evil Penguin Master of disguises, Mexican top-hats, ambient rockabilly to minimal Hawaiian Kumulipo chants, the Evil Penguin poses the primordial question of evanescence against a backdrop of New Wave folk. Celebratory, subliminal, moment-to-moment. A Tasmanian treasure with a penchant for open spaces.