Test ToneTest Tone

SuperDeluxe 7th Anniversary!!!!!!!
with

Test Tone Series 50th Celebration

A Festival of Titanic Sounds!

To mark Test Tone's 50th, we will be releasing a 3-disc anthology of live recordings from the series, including some of the finest moments from the past four years. Rare gems from Damo Suzuki, Tenniscoats, OWKMJ, Christophe Charles, L?K?O, Muddy World and many more will be included with the set, to be released from SuperDeluxe's own label medama records. Join us for this very special 50th celebration and release party.

Live: Tatsuhisa Yamamoto + Imai Kazuo, L?K?O + Kelly Churko + Keiichi Nakano (2UP), Yasufumi Suzuki + Cal Lyall + Keigo Iwami + Kaoru Suzuki / VJ: onnacodomo / DJ: evil penguin



Test Tone Homepage

Cal Lyall and Yasufumi Suzuki Special Interview!! (JP only)

Artist info:

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto + Imai Kazuo

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of legendary improvisor Kazuo Imai on the past 50 years of Japanese free music. With his beginnings as Masayuki Takayanagi's longtime guitar protege and his subsequent work with Takehisa Kosugi and the Taj Mahal Travellers, Imai aligned himself early on with the most singular voices from the 70s free music scene. Over the past three decades, despite withdrawing from public performance for years at a time, he has garnered a name for himself playing with everyone from innovative Dutch drummer Han Bennink to Japanese noise superstars Incapacitants. On this evening he'll be joined by Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on 'drums and metal', whose recent outings with Alan Silva, Jim O'Rourke, Mitsuru Tabata and local indie greats Natsumen are quickly making him the 'chosen one' for many a drum gig. A chance to see both these great musicians in a perfect setting: stripped down and hell-bent on tumultuous sound.

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto


Kazuo Imai

L?K?O + Kelly Churko + Keiichi Nakano

I've often wondered if the were in fact two L?K?Os. Seemingly everywhere at once, you'll find him featured at noise/grind gala Murder Channel, hiphop nights at Rock West, belly-dancing bonanzas, and even Thai festivals, sometimes all in the same night. This aptly sets the stage for his improvised turntable work, which is fresh, perceptive, and above all, the work of a musician with extreme peripheral vision. Joining the lineup will be improvising guitarist and composer Kelly Churko, who besides moonlighting with heavyweights like K.K. Null, Zbigniew Karkowski and Akira Sotoyama, remains at the helm of Tokyo grind heroes AKBK (with Naoto 'Araking' Araki of King Goblin fame). Finally, fresh off a US tour with his two-man powerhouse 2UP, drummer Keiichi Nakano will no doubt be stoking engines with his unhinged and gold-encrusted skin & cymbal massage. Make sure to wear loose clothing.

L?K?O


Kelly Churko


Keiichi Nakano
(2UP)

AEN + Cal Lyall + Keigo Iwami + Kaoru Suzuki

Putting musicians into completely new contexts is always a hit-or-miss affair, but the potential rewards are just so darn exciting that we simply keep doing it. In what could be a somewhat ungodly sacrifice to the gods of free jazz, we present a collision of superheated musicianship courtesy of AEN (aka Yasufumi Suzuki of Commune Disc and Soundroom) on molten electronics, Cal Lyall (Tetragrammaton, Jahiliyyah) on unprepared guitar, Keigo Iwami (Oncenth Trio, Zycos, Midori) on uber-contrabass and Kaoru Suzuki on panoramic drum duties. This might be the future of freaked-out (and very loose-limbed) dance music.

Yasufumi Suzuki
(Commune Disc / SOUNDROOM)
MySpace


Cal Lyall
Currently active in Japan's free improvisation scene and member of drone-psych trio Tetragrammaton, ecstatic choral unit Jahiliyyah, electro-acoustic duo Missing Man Foundation and avant disco unit FDF (with Kumiko Okamura). Other projects include Golden Parabola, Palimpsest (with Kelly Churko), Auraboris (duo with TOMO from Tetragrammaton), Laptop Orchestra, Aktion Directe (with Akira Yamamichi and Masatsugu Hattori), Nikkasen (with Mitsuru Tabata, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and Kelly Churko), zycOs (with Masatsugu Hattori, Keigo Iwami, and Kouzou Komori), Electroacoustic Jazz Quartet (with Peter Slade, Akira Yamamichi and Jimanica) while also performing as a solo artist with distinctive artists such as Tetuzi Akiyama, Chie Mukai, L?K?O, Samm Bennett, Coppe', Hideo Ikegami, Yasumune Morishige, Yoshio Otani, Yoshio Machida, Damo Suzuki and many more.
Irregularly manages the Subvalent record label and soundispatch imprint / collective and quite regularly mismanages the monthly event Test Tone at SuperDeluxe in Nishi-Azabu (Tokyo)


Keigo Iwami
(Oncenth trio)


Kaoru Suzuki
(drum)

onnacodomo

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.

Evil Penguin

Grand wizard of vinyl and interstellar treasure hunter, the Evil Penguin extracts the tastiest gems from his cosmic vat of recordings long forgotten. Pure listening pleasure.


About Test Tone...
Test Tone is a free monthly event that promotes varied and, we hope, interesting live music to a wider audience in Tokyo. We wanted to create an event that highlights the diversity of great music and visual art being made here and give more people an opportunity to see and hear it.

To make Test Tone as accessible as possible we wanted a central Tokyo space with a good sound system; a place where people would want to come and hang out, eat, drink and meet people. And listen to some live music that they may not otherwise get exposed to. As a further encouragement, we wanted to make the event free—not only for the audience, but for the performers too.

All this could easily have been an order too tall were it not for the exceptional people at Super Deluxe that made it all possible. Their enthusiasm for live music and visuals and faith in the event, allowing us complete creative freedom in booking artists, has allowed Test Tone to grow into something even broader in scope than we could have hoped for back in February 2005 when we proudly presented volume 1.

Our aim is to create a wider community. To further that, please get in touch if you are interested in playing, or want to be kept up to date with Test Tone events.

Finally, we'd like to say thanks to everyone that has been involved with Test Tone, especially all the artists that have made the events such a continuing success.