TEST TONE: U/N.a+NOEL-KIT, Kinetic (Hiroki Chiba+Masatsugu Hattori), VOIMA

Artist information:

U/N.a+NOEL-KIT (Hiroyuki Nakamura + Koichi Utsugi + NOEL-KIT)

Two fine musicians pushing their jazz backgrounds ever further, Hiroyuki Nakamura (keys/electronics and Max/MSP) and Koichi Utsugi (saxophone/electronics and laptop) make up U/N.a, a project meshing said jazz with wide ranging compositional ideas. Incorporating ambient, glitch and minimal influences, they take the listener through a treasure trove of sound, bringing to mind everything from Prefuse 73 and Marcus Popp's work with Oval to ECM jazz.
They will be joined by the laptop experimentation of NOEL-KIT, one half of electronic improv unit DUB-Russell. With an ever-growing legion of fans, Dub-Russell creates mind-twisting beat-driven textures using their self-programmed software. NOEL-KIT is sure to bring a taste of their kaleidoscopic rhythms along for this special collaboration.

Kinetic (Hiroki Chiba + Masatsugu Hattori Duo)

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 to percussive forms, becoming a perfect foil for the dense double-bass textures of mercurial bass/electronics wizard Hiroki Chiba (Isolation Music Quartet, They Live, Hose II, etc.) The duo will explore some stark and challenging territory, but you might also find some new dance moves when the rhythm breaks into dangerous groove-like splinters.

VOIMA (Suzuki Yasufumi + Yasunaga Tetsuro)

An improvisational unit featuring Suzuki Yasufumi (aka AEN, Soundroom/Commune Disc) and Tetsuro Yasunaga (from helll, minamo, etc.), VOIMA creates evolving pieces using a number of electronic instruments to effect sampled sound loops. Guided by an organic pulse, the music seems to move through a multiple layers of ideas simultaneously. Although these ideas may not be premeditated at first, they are soon massaged into a something altogether majestic.
To quote their profile (from the 2012 Ftarri Festival): "It could be said that within their expression they are continually asking the question of how to get away from the mental operation of creating context from a mass of information. But actually, they aren't thinking that much."

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.