Test ToneTest Tone

Test Tone vol. 63

Incumbent Soundforms

Featuring: Jean-François Laporte (Québec), Benjamin Thigpen (Paris), Lead Sister II + Meri Nikula (Finland) + Jérôme Fouquet (France) and DJ Evil Penguin



Test Tone Homepage

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

Artist info:

Jean-François Laporte (Québec)

Integrating visual art and sound exploration, Québécois artist Jean-François Laporte has been an influential figure on the contemporary art scene since the mid-1990s. Taking an intuitive approach to creating music, Laporte has learned his art through concrete experimentation on matter, actively listening to each sound, object or material. Much of his work is the result of working with raw material, devising simple yet ingenious constructions born of each material he explores.
Receiving his fifth "Prix Opus" last year, Laporte was named "Facteur d'Instrument de Musique de l'Année" by the CQM (Conseil Québécois de la Musique). This gives timely recognition to the quality of Laporte's work and the importance his visionary musical inventions.
Homepage

Benjamin Thigpen (Paris)

For Benjamin Thigpen, music is a medium that speaks about ideas, thoughts, activities, scenes, images and conflicts. With his strong background in literary studies, he has developed a singular approach to musical composition and structure, which has led to accolades and performances of his work worldwide. Since first moving to Europe from his native US, he has been an influential teacher at notable institutions like IRCAM (Paris) and the Conservatory of Cuneo (Italy).
Homepage

Lead Sister II + Meri Nikula (Finland) + Jérôme Fouquet (France)

It's hard to define the unlikely outcome of this first-time meeting, but imagine a musical potpourri of trumpet multiphonics, Nordic melody and southern smokehouse anthems and you might be getting close. Coming together from disparate lands to make some glorious sounds will be French trumpet player Jérôme Fouquet, Finnish vocalist Meri Nikula and instrument chemist and all-around music healer Lead Sister II. This may just be the new vibrations you've been waiting for.
Lead Sister II
Meri Nikula
Jérôme Fouquet

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.