Ellen Weller (winds, from USA) + Tetsuro Yasunaga (keys, electronics)

Wrapping up a two-week tour of Japan, Test Tone is the last stop for multi-reed wizard Ellen Weller. As a professor of world music at Palomar College in San Diego, Ellen covers a lot of musical ground in her playing, effortlessly hopping from Klezmer to classical to free improvisation all in the same breath. She has also performed with a long list of fine musicians the likes of George Lewis and Mark Dresser.

Joining her will be one of the most wonderful musical minds from the Tokyo scene; curator, bandleader and improvising musician Tetsuro Yasunaga, who besides his prolific activities in Japan with the bands minamo, Voiva and helll, has also garnered a name through a range of overseas activities in the United States and Europe.

Ellen Weller

Tetsuro Yasunaga

Giovanni di Domenico (piano, from Belgium) + Daysuke Takaoka (tuba) + Tatsuhisa Yamamato (drums)

Musical nomad extraordinaire, Giovanni Di Domenico has been on the road with music for as long as he can remember. From his birthplace in Rome, he has traveled far and wide, playing with a range of musicians (amongst them Arve Henriksen, Akira Sakata and Jim O'Rourke) in a myriad of contexts, from modern jazz to free improv and experimental pop.

On this evening, he has loaded his caravan with two of Tokyo's finest improvisors, mercurial tuba player Daysuke Takaoka and drumming man-in-demand Tatsuhisa Yamamato.

Be prepared for nomadic music at its most extraodinary.

Giovanni di Domenico on YouTube

Daysuke Takaoka on MySpace

Tatsuhisa Yamamato

polyphonic parachute + (yuki kaneko, takahisa umehara, yasunori tani, asuka tanaka, KO.DO.NA., ikeda takumi, satoshi kanda and friends)

In their most ambitious collective project to date, polyphonic parachute (yuki kaneko & takahisa umehara) have assembled an orchestra of superlative musicians to realize their electroacoustic concept on a grand scale. Using toy pianos, electronics, guitars, field recordings and cassette tapes, the band merges minimal folk music with primeval electronic sounds for some breathtaking organic creations.

With a stage setup that may look a bit like a Sunday flea market, polyphonic parachute's array of gifted musicians will no doubt offer some shimmering treasures that you won't find anywhere else.

polyphonic parachute on MySpace

Onnacodomo (visuals)

Taking their inspiration from moments and objects from everyday life, visual unit onnacodomo make the ordinary decidedly extraordinary. Eschewing computer-generated graphics or recorded material, the three members (DJ Codomo, Yasuko Seki and Ruka Noguchi) perform in real time using a video camera to capture their spontaneous creations.

Shimmering projections are created using water, mirrors and an array of lights, while a world of fantastic images is constructed with found photos, kitchen utensils, toys, stationary and improvised artwork. Kaleidoscopic, absurd and unreal, onnacodomo takes you into a slightly-unhinged world that is absolutely original in its conception.

onnacodomo

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.