Test ToneTest Tone

Test Tone vol. 58

Rarified Sound - Pictures of Resonance and Dissonance

Featuring: Nobunaga Ken + Ryo + Scott Jordan + Kazuyuki Tomioka, Iron Egg (Darren Moore + Tim O'Dwyer + Brian O'Reilly - Australia/US/Singapore), LVSXY (Clayton Thomas + Clare Cooper - Australia/Germany), DUEL (Keiko Higuchi + Astro + Kelly Churko + Tabata Mitsuru), Bas van Huizen (visuals/the Netherlands) and DJ Evil Penguin



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Artist information:

Nobunaga Ken + Ryo + Scott Jordan + Kazuyuki Tomioka

With subtle acoustic instrumentation and refined musical sensibilities, this group of improvisors explore lush textures and meditative rhythm, leaning on influences from traditional Japanese music and free improv. The group's membership includes Nobunaga Ken (Tetragrammaton, HissPiss) on taisho koto and percussion, Ryo on koto, shamisen and voice, Scott Jordan on koto and bowed koto and features Kazuyuki Tomioka performing Noh recitation and dance.

Nobunaga Ken (perc, taisho-koto)
Ryo (koto, shamisen, voice)
Scott Jordan (koto, bowed koto)
Kazuyuki Tomioka (Noh recitation, dance)

Iron Egg (Darren Moore + Tim O'Dwyer + Brian O'Reilly - Australia/US/Singapore)

Based in Singapore, Darren Moore (laptop/percussion), Tim O'Dwyer (saxophone) and Brian O'Reilly (bass/electronics/moving images) work with minimal sound and image to achieve subtle passages of shadowy texture, constructing a world that is both haunting and beautiful.
Using extended instrumental techniques combined with live electronics, the group has developed a controlled improvisational approach that produces ethereal soundscapes that seem at moments to be frozen in time.

myspace

LVSXY (Clayton Thomas + Clare Cooper - Australia/Germany)

An improvised duo of extreme resonance, LVSXY combines the ethereal qualities of the Chinese zither with the tonal depth of the double bass, taking both instruments into extended territories of sound and texture. Clare Cooper and Clayton Thomas have made music together since 2000 in groups such as the Splinter Orchestra and Hammeriver. After making the move to Berlin from their native Australia, they also began curating a number of festivals, most notably the 'NOW now festival' which started in 2001.

Clayton Thomas (from Germany)
Clare Cooper (from Germany)

DUEL (Keiko Higuchi + Astro + Kelly Churko + Tabata Mitsuru)

With a group made up of members from Zeni Geva, 0.03, C.C.C.C. and AKBK, you might expect a marauding onslaught of speed, grind, skree and general noise terror. Not so. With superlative musicianship, the mood can be transported anywhere, and these four musicians have found equal footing in a meeting place of dreamscape deliquescence and seismic soundscapes. The density of their performance is a testament to the heaviness of the players involved, and although this collaboration is a full-grown wooly mammoth, you might find it carefully tiptoeing through the tundra.

Keiko Higuchi
Astro
Kelly Churko
Tabata Mitsuru

Bas van Huizen (the Netherlands)

Originally from Nijmegen (the Netherlands), Bas van Huizen is a sound and visual artist who creates works of carefully layered texture and subtle compositional form. On this evening, he will be working with realtime visuals taken from water sources, augmenting several of the night's performances. In addition to his creative activity, he is also jointly runs Etherkreet records, a label focusing on electroacoustic and improvised music.

myspace

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.