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experiments in music

Test Tone vol. 98

Test Tone 98 flyer

Sound Experiments

Test Tone 98: Perception Impact

November 12th, 2013 (Tuesday) 20:00 to 23:00 at Super Deluxe, Nishi Azabu, Tokyo.

CARRE

CARREPurveyors of self-styled 21st century industrial music, CARRE have been creating dense, rhythmic urban sound in Japan for close to a decade. With NAG on rhythm machine, bass machine and synthesizer, and MTR on rhythm box, oscillator and guitar, the duo traverses a aural universe of collapsing beats and undulating melodies, leaving you with the feeling that you may have just experienced a (somewhat pleasant) alien abduction. Prepare the tinfoil hats!

CARRE

Ulf Bilting (from Sweden) & Zbigniew Karkowski*

Ulf Bilting & Zbigniew Karkowski(*Due to unforeseen circumstances, Zbigniew Karkowski is unable to appear on this night, but exceptional sound artist Takumi Ikeda will perform instead with Ulf Bilting in a special collaboration.)

Swedish computer scientist, educator, composer and artist Ulf Bilting first collaborated with Zbigniew Karkowski in 1986, where he worked at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Predating much of what is taken for granted today, Bilting pioneered a course in computer music to engage engineering and composition students together in a creative context. From this began a vanguard association with Karkowski, then a student of composition at the Academy of Music, resulting in a course at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm modeled on their work in Gothenburg, the release of the vinyl album "Bad Bye Engine" in 1987 (http://www.bilting.se/bbe), and the construction of the spatial sensor interactive system "For me and for my gods" that saw both a US tour and performances at Ars Electronica 1991 in Linz and the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik 1992 in Darmstadt.

Geographically separated since then, they have nonetheless continued their collaborative activities, such as at the Krakow Audio Art Festival in 1996 and concerts at Fylkingen in Stockholm. This is Bilting's first concert in Japan and yet another creative reunion with Zbigniew.

Bilting/Karkowski's Bad Bye Engine

Tetsuji Masuda (JMT SYNTH) + Cal Lyall + Shizuo Uchida

Tetsuji Masuda (JMT SYNTH) + Cal Lyall + Shizuo UchidaWith the resurgence of interest in analog instruments, there are people discovering what JMT SYNTH's Tetsuji Masuda already knew: the joy of modular synths can't be replaced by laptops alone. The wonder of tactile knobs, a spaghetti of cables, and unpredictable results that never cease to amaze... It's no wonder his line of analog units have won devotees in Japan and around the world. In addition to building magical boxes for others, he also uses his own gear to coax some wonderful sounds into the ether.

Joining him in a unique collaboration on this evening will be Cal Lyall on hydrophones and effects, and Shizuo Uchida (from Hasegawa-Shizuo, Kito-mizukumi rouber, etc.) on bass for a crepuscular sound experience. For those inclined, a shop of JMT SYNTH wares will be on hand to peruse for sonic treasures.

JMT SYNTH

Cal Lyall

Shizuo Uchida

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.