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experiments in music

Test Tone vol. 21

Flyer

Experiments in music

Test Tone presents vol. 21:
Damo Suzuki's Network

March 13, 2007 (Tuesday) 20:00 to 24:00 at Super Deluxe, Nishi Azabu, Tokyo.

Featuring:

Yoshio Kuge

Recently most-known for his electronic percussion and drum work with beat-fueled festival favorite Flying Rhythms, Yoshio Kuge is a versatile musician involved with countless projects over the years. From the ever-shifting psychedelic folk of Maher Shalal Hash Baz to the theatrical playing of Orquesta Del Viento, Kuge's inventive improvisational approach can be found in the deepest corners of the Japanese underground.

Flying Rhythms

Takashi Ueno

For a number of years, Takashi Ueno has lent his subtle sensibility to Tenniscoats, an original and unaffected band with singer Saya, and sometimes member Satoru Ono. Layering swelled chords and picked notes, his intimate style of guitar displays the finest sense of harmony and an ear for melodic intent. However, this group is only one of the many places where you can find his unique sax playing and signature guitar. With a collaborative history too expansive to mention, Ueno has to be one of the most adaptable musicians of the younger generation of Japanese musicians.

Tenniscoats

Yuriko Mukoujima

Yuriko Mukoujima is another one of those musicians who, if you're someone who reads the list of guest musicians on an album sleeve, just seems to turn up everywhere. With tours of Europe and the United States under her belt, she has played with a number of the finest musicians of her generation. From the early wave of New York downtowners, such as Tom Cora, Samm Bennett and Wayne Horvitz, to pioneers of the European new music, such as Lars Hollmer and Willem Breuker, she has made a name for herself worldwide. At home, she is in demand as a multi-faceted master of the violin and viola, playing with everyone from Makigami Koichi, Yoshida Tatsuya and Eiichi Hayashi to Mari Hamada and Takio Ito.

Yuriko Mukoujima (Japanese profile)

Mitsuru Tabata

Tabata's contribution to the history of the Japanese underground cannot be overstated. As a founding member of the Boredoms (with Hanatarash genius Yamatsuka Eye), Tabata began a career that took him to international fame with K.K. Null and Zeni Geva, and most recently Acid Mother's Temple and Amazon Saliva (with Hide aka Ultra-Bide on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles imprint). There is not enough space to expound on his protean character as a musician, so we'll leave that for you to discover on your own (check link below). His guitar sound, both fluid and volatile (raw and crushing?) is perfect for train wrecks and/or hangovers. In his own words, his music sounds like 'another solar system or Diego Maradona'. Indeed.

Mitsuru Tabata on MySpace.

Mitsuru Nasuno

As bass player with the highly influential Altered States and Ground Zero, Nasuno's resume reads like a who's who of the Japanese underground/improv scene, including Haino Keiji, Tatsuya Yoshida, Kazutoki Umezu, Yamatsuka Eye, Samm Bennett, and many more.

Mitsuru Nasuno

Mori-shige

As with all fine improv, Morishige's music maintains a keen sense of surprise, a feeling that anything might happen as new connections are unexpectedly made in the neural network of the performer's mind. Check the links below for a sample of Morishige's uncanny ability to offset other musicians in a duo setting.

Mori-shige

Mori-shige on MySpace

Jimanica

Yu Ojima a.k.a Jimanica has played at Test Tone so many times now either as a guest drummer or laptop musician or with one of his own units, it's hard to know what else to say about this highly talented musician. Suffice to say that we will continue to invite him back if he continues to push the respective envelopes of performance, composition and improvisation.

Jimanica

Cal Lyall

Another versatile musician that has played with a large and growing number of Tokyo bands including Tetragrammaton, Missing Man Foundation, Jahiliyyah and the FDF, he will join the evening's parade of talent with outbursts of analog synthesizer and sundry electronics.

Hermetic Tin Drum on MySpace

Umibachi

No new wave re-pioneers Umibachi began in 2004, after the break up of legendary unit Chicago Bass. With members Jotaro Miwa (bass), Genta Matsumura (vocals, guitar), Kid Kut (sampler, keyboard) and Eiji F. Morotomi (drums), they take the best elements from the early New York No Wave movement and create a sound that is entirely their own. Currently in the studio recording a new album, they will take a short break to bring us one of their championship live shows.

Umibachi

OHPIA (Live visuals and light manipulations)

Recently, following a wave of laptop-centric visual artists, there has been a move back towards the analog and lighting aspects in live performance. Ohpia has been taking this approach for a couple of years now, using overhead projectors with fluid textures and cell lighting for an overall psychedelic experience. They achieve their unique textures with a completely DIY setup: translucent liquids, holographic lighting, shadow pictures, psychedelic moving collage and video projection create an other-worldly affair that awakens the senses.

OHPIA

05.03.2007. 19:16