Test ToneTest Tone

Test Tone vol. 57

Units of Measurement for Unequal Temperaments

Featuring: Tim Olive, Makoto Oshiro, Mark Sadgrove, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Manuel Knapp (Vienna), Masatsugu Hattori, Cal Lyall, Yasufumi Suzuki a.k.a. AEN and DJ Evil Penguin



Test Tone Homepage

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

Artist information:

Tim Olive (Osaka)

Born on the Canadian prairies, improvising guitarist Tim Olive has journeyed long and hard through distance and sound to reach his current place in the Japanese improv scene. A downright versatile musician, he continues to collaborate with players around the world in a range of settings. A musical vagabond with high standards of exploration.
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Makoto Oshiro

With live performances that challenge the definition of installation art, composition and musical instrumentation, Makoto Oshiro's work seems to be in a constant state of innovation and reinvention. Incorporating a range a media, such as iron plates, household fans and vinyl piping, Oshiro's creations are often as visually captivating as they are inconceivable and unpredictable.
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Mark Sadgrove

Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, sound artist and inventor of fine electronic contraptions, Mark Sadgrove (aka MHFS) has made his mark in a number of collaborative projects with diverse musicians including Mark Anderson (in his Tokyo-based unit Greymouth), Anthony Guerra and Tim Coster. In addition to the homemade instruments used in his stellar live performances, Mark has laid down an impressive body of work with a string of releases on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Scarcelight and his own label, a binary datum.
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Takahiro Kawaguchi

We often take for granted much of the environmental sound that surrounds us, things like dropped CDs, electric motors, scrunched plastic bags and ceiling fans. Takahiro Kawaguchi uses this as a starting point for his sonic explorations, placing microphones on these various objects or simply using the acoustics of the space as his canvas, resulting in performances that might resemble four or five science lab experiments happening all at once.
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Manuel Knapp (Vienna)

Viennese artist Manuel Knapp began his studies in the visual arts, but has followed a interdisciplinary trajectory involving both experimental film and sound, his works being shown and numerous film festivals and multimedia events worldwide. His current residency in Tokyo has laid the groundwork for a number of new improvisational collaborations, resulting in a number of exciting performances to date. A limited time offer that shouldn't be passed up.
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Masatsugu Hattori

With a firm grasp of jazz tradition, drummer and vibraphonist Masatsugu Hattori took his percussion work straight into the new millennium with a range of projects, such as electroacoustic unit Ryusenkei Body, jazz-electronica unit Zycos, and conceptual electronica with Aktion Directe. These days he has taken a minimal musical approach while focusing on solo and collaborative work, and this evening will be a fine forum for his unique approach to percussive forms.
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Cal Lyall

Constructing a musical universe from folk instruments, electronic junk, field recordings and hardware tools, his diverse contributions to numerous projects reflect a bevy of influences, ranging from Appalachian mountain music to free-flowing drone and ecstatic improvisation. Currently active in the improvising groups Tetragrammaton, Missing Man Foundation, Jahiliyyah and the avant hip hop unit FDF, he also has performed as a solo artist with distinctive artists such as Tetuzi Akiyama, Chie Mukai and Damo Suzuki.
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Yasufumi Suzuki a.k.a. AEN (Commune Disc)

As director of the Commune Disc label and curator of the monthly Soundroom event at Super Deluxe, Yasufumi Suzuki keeps close quarters with many performers we know and respect. As an artist in his own right he produces resplendent solo work, very often the result of his two old tape recorders overdubbed into layered and sublime pieces of music. As a live performing artist, he is a fearless improvisor, taking the stage in a number of contexts with musical innovators from Japan and overseas.
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DJ 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.

About Test Tone

A monthly experiment offering irregular art, music and performance in Tokyo.
The Test Tone series aims to offer a venue for diverse and challenging artists to bring their ideas to a larger community. As a free event open to the public, we hope to bypass the old economies in order to create new ones, while encouraging collaboration in all forms. A collage of media, sound and art in a space available to anyone off the street, the event is a bazaar of potential collisions, where passersby are treated to the unexpected.
For all of this, we found our home base at Super Deluxe, a unique space in Tokyo's midtown, providing a relaxed atmosphere within its modular interior. The event continues to be a celebration of off-kilter creativity in the city: from installation pieces to performance art and visual collaborations; from noise, electronica, ambient sounds and free rock to disorderly jazz and manipulated field recordings. To date, close to 500 artists have been a part of the event, together creating opportunities for unexpected improvisation, collaboration, and festival spirit.