Brendan Landis (aka Hey Exit from Brookyn) + Fujiwara Daisuke

Currently touring Japan with performaces on both koto and guitar, Brooklyn-based Brendan Landis is a multifaceted musician who covers a lot of ground in his work. Performing under the name Hey Exit, his improvised guitar work moves from passages of grinding guitar repair one moment to stumbling loops of drone the next, all carefully placed amongst grand chunks of silence. As a koto player, he works in both traditional settings and as an acoustic improvisor.

On this evening, he will be joined by local tenor sax whiz Fujiwara Daisuke, who has been expanding into new and wonderful realms of expression as of late. A perfect collision of sounds from which to start the holiday season.

Hey Exit

Fujiwara Daisuke

Tin Can Trio (Scott Jordan: metal instruments, Take: metal instruments, Lead Sister II: handmade instruments)

This all-metal instrument trio is the brainchild of koto player Scott Jordan, who will put down the koto strings to coax some wonderful sounds out of scrap metal. He'll be joined by multi-instrumentalist Take, and the mad musical inventions of Lead Sister II, which qualify as metal–due to the nails needed to fix them–after their repeated end-of-show destruction.

Scott Jordan on Myspace

Take on Myspace

Lead Sister II on Myspace

Baby Copperhead aka Benjamin B. Lee (from Brooklyn) + AEN aka Yasufumi Suzuki (soundroom)

We are very happy to announce the addition of Brooklyn-based Baby Copperhead to the line-up of Test Tone 76. Visiting Japan for a very short holiday, he has agreed to bring his stellar banjo chops and homemade electronics for what promises to be an otherworldly yet intimate affair.

For this special occasion, we have corralled SOUNDROOM's very own Yasufumi Suzuki (aka AEN) to face off with Baby Copperhead for the final Test Tone of 2011. This will be a fun one.

Baby Copperhead

Yasufumi Suzuki (Commune Disc)

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.