I want to handle both light and sound simultaneously and pleasantly, as we play music or draw pictures. This is a theme I have been working on for a long time. Pursuing this idea further I have been developing the Tenori-On with particular attention given to the beauty of the light and sounds, the ease of performance, and as a musical instrument for the future – the design and quality of the instrument as a whole. In days gone by, a musical instrument had to have a beauty of shape as well of sound, it had to fit the player organically (the violin springs to mind). All these elements were once considered indispensable. Modern electronic instruments don’t have the inevitable relationship between the shape, the sound, and the player. What I have done is try to bring back these, once indispensable elements and build them in to a try musical instrument for the digital age. – Toshio Iwai
Ten out of ten tenori
Artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha have collaborated to develop a musical instrument for the 21st century – the Tenori-On. A 16×16 matrix of LED switches creates a “visible music” interface allowing music to be played intuitively. The switches function as individual displays emitting light that emulates the related sound. When you push a switch for a short time, a ripple of light spreads out from the switch to others – corresponding with the sound you have chosen. If the switch is held down for slightly longer a dot of light remains indicating that the light & sound will play repeatedly – looped. People seem to quickly understand the relationship between the sound and light, thus even novice or non musicians can enjoy improvising and composing immediately. To play notes, you plot points on the dot-matrix as if you were drawing a picture.
Artists as diverse as Pole, Four Tet and Battles are queueing up to endorse this quite revolutionary instrument. Singer-songwriter Little Boots from Blackpool, England with her striking performance and electro-pop sound has been recently propelled into the public eye – scenes of her playing the Tenori-On at home on YouTube caught the attention of music lovers: “It’s a visual thing, live editing and building a beat onstage – people can see what they’re hearing. I’m personally quite fascinated by song structure it’s great when people can see how the layers combine through the animation. Also, I’m a sucker for futuristic gadgets – you could say there are two Tenori-On – one is a retro toy, the other is an advanced musical instrument.”
One of the best uses is free improvisation. Electronic music has a reputation for being boring to watch live, anything that can be done to get away from that, to make it as exciting as watching a rock band – to make it a physical process and demonstrate sound must surely be a good thing. It is a wonder why, with all the technological advancement and miniturization of studio technology that little has been done by way of live instrumentation. It may be that the designers of such things see sound, audio and by extension music as a laboratory exercise, and why it has taken a media artist such as Toshio Iwai to collaborate with an electronics giant like Yamaha to create an intuitive, advanced instrument such as this.
Wired.com Article on Futuristic Instruments
Interview with Little Boots – Yamaha
Tags: Experimental, Instrument, Little Boots, Tenori-On, Yamaha
Dear Santa, please can I have one of these for Christmas, they look fucking great!!!!