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Test Tone 32: Adventures in Audiovisual Resonance
Eliminate your toxin buildup with cerebra and leg massage at this month's Test Tone. Meditate under mountains of frequencies or dance in the corner. A top-notch reinvention of the lounge experience. Frequency titillation, rhythmic massage and more featuring Yukitomo Hamasaki (matter), Instant Places (Canada), Legofriendly (Dusseldorf/Tokyo) and Tripon (visuals)




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Artist Information:

Yukitomo Hamasaki (sound & design)

We first found out about Yukitomo Hamasaki through Philippe Chatelain's Laptop Orchestra, an experiment in collective improvisation where a single sound source is manipulated by a group of laptop-wielding musicians. What we didn't know was that Hamasaki is in fact a musician in the truest sense. His own compositions reveal a deep appreciation of harmonic structure, layering sounds in textures that seem to leave the listener suspended in time. Interspersed with irregular clicks, pops and beeps, the minimal breaks in time reveal the careful attention to detail in the depth and dynamics of his music. Hamasaki also heads up the the splendorific Tokyo-based label 'matter', which seems to act as an extension of his own rarified musical sensibilities.

Instant Places (audio/video project)

Using a plethora of sources, Ian Birse and Laura Cavanaugh aka Instant Places create captivating works that reinterpret the sights, sounds and spaces of our environments. As a working unit, they investigate how we impose ourselves in our interactions with our surroundings. As artists, they have have a remarkable sense for finding the extraordinary in our everyday experiences, piecing together tapestries of sound and image that interrupt our sense of space. With a number of projects to their credit, including everything from large installation works to noise opera, it's difficult to predict what they have in store. They are going with the theme of 'Tokyo Rodeo' for this month's Test Tone, so it's fair to say that there might be a few accidents. Wear your snakeskin kimono if you've got one.

Legofriendly (electronic music)

Electronica can get pretty dull. In an age of laptop-produced boredom, it's fortunate we have artists who take the time for quality control. A unit with its roots in Tokyo, Germany and England, Legofriendly seems to take the best aspects of all three. Disparate beats and quirky samples are carefully distilled in the frequency lab, then scientifically arranged for maximum cerebral massage. Playfully eccentric yet always accessible, the music strikes the perfect balance between harmonic subtlety and head-nodding rhythms. Tokyo-based ex-pats Stan Eberlein and Peter Slade first formed this unit in 2002, and this night will serve as a pre-release for their second album on the Intervall-audio imprint, Egg Beater. With a full working setup, this performance will be a truly live experience, and surely the best chance to hear their distinct sound before the album release in June.
Intervall-audio

Tripon (visual performance)

A dynamic visual group who have gained a reputation for the quality, originality and breadth of their work, we are overjoyed to have them back at Test Tone this month. Vokoi, Satoshi Horii and Daito Manabe are not only adept artists, but have truly embodied the spirit of creating unexpected instruments out of new technologies. You can be sure that they will bring a dose of this vision to cover the walls throughout the evening.