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experiments in music

Test Tone vol. 68

Test Tone 68 flyer

Sound Experiments

Test Tone 68: The Big Bright Sum of Reverberation

April 12th, 2011 (Tuesday) 20:00 to 23:00 at Super Deluxe, Nishi Azabu, Tokyo.

A Message from Test Tone: While the catastrophe in northern Japan weighs heavy on everyone's minds, we are trying to make a slow return to normalcy here in Tokyo. We know there is a long struggle ahead for many of those in the affected areas, and our hearts are with the victims of this devastating tragedy. We have been involved with a number of fundraising events over the past several weeks and continue to do so on a number of fronts. We will, however, keep our regular Test Tone event free of charge, and despite understandable cancellations from many overseas acts, continue this month with a challenging lineup of local artists. For those wishing to donate funds, we encourage you to research a worthwhile charity and give generously. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Heartland

HeartlandFormed by Hirokazu 'mary' Mori and Jun Takami, Heartland carve some lovely and dense layers of sound out of their toppling piles of effects. With each taking control of a batch of frequencies in the spectrum, they manage some mammoth themes while still retaining an essence of abstract ambient sound.

Harmonic ideas mesh with complex bass sounds for a wall of creepily-construed goodness. Wonderfully evocative stuff.

Heartland on Myspace

Kouhei Harada + Cal Lyall

Kouhei Harada + Cal LyallMany months in the planning, this collaboration will finally see the light at Test Tone. Curator, musician and good friend Kouhei Harada will meet with the underwater rumblings of Test Tone's Cal Lyall, whose recent forays into hydrophone recording, manipulation and recording have taken him into the depths of fish tanks, turtle ponds and the South China Sea. Harada will use his Max/MSP wizardry to persuade some unpredictable subtlety from these sounds of nature.

Kouhei Harada

Cal Lyall

Kazuo Imai + Fujikawa Yoshiaki + ASTRO + Keiko Higuchi

Kazuo Imai + Fujikawa Yoshiaki + ASTRO + Keiko HiguchiAny Test Tone regular would hardly need an introduction to these four major figures in Japan's free improv scene, and for the curious, this will hopefully be a mind-blowing lesson in aural history.

Legendary guitarist Kazuo Imai and equally towering saxophonist Fujikawa Yoshiaki are both known for their late 70s associations with Takehisa Kosugi (Taj Mahal Travellers) and Masayuki Takayanagi (New Direction), while they have forged names of their own through rare musicianship and uncompromising paths of expression.

Hiroshi Hasegawa (aka ASTRO) first came on the scene in the early 90s, with renowned noise/improv group CCCC, and continues to explore spaced-out analog extremities in a number of heavy settings internationally.

Finally, vocalist Keiko Higuchi has become a unique voice in the jazz/improv scenes both in Japan and abroad, using her impressive range and imagination to add twists of color to a number of collaborations in recent years. Monumental goodness.

Kazuo Imai

Fujikawa Yoshiaki

ASTRO

Keiko Higuchi

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.