Yasunao Tone
Encyclopedia
Yasunao Tone is a Japan
ese artist who has worked with many different types of media throughout his career. He was born in Tokyo
, Japan in 1935, and he graduated from Chiba Japanese National University in 1957, majoring in Japanese literature. He became active in the Fluxus movement
in the 1960s and moved to the United States in 1972. He organized and participanted in many noise music
performance groups such as Group Ongaku, Hi-Red Center, Team Random (the first computer art
group organized in Japan).
Yasunao Tone is known mostly for his musical work, much of which relies on unconventional techniques. Tone began manipulating compact disks to achieve uniquely mangled sounds in the early 1980s. For his 1985 album, Solo for Wounded CD, he damaged audio CDs and used the information that a CD player was able to extract from those discs to create new pieces. Tone's CD player based works employ a process of "de-controlling" the device's playback so that it randomly selects fragments from a set of sound materials. Tone has stated that the error-correction functionality of modern CD players has made it hard to continue to use this technique and, for this reason, he continues to use older equipment. For his collaboration with Florian Hecker, Palimpsest, he converted Japanese Man'yōshū poems to sound.
Always active in United States
with avant-garde music
artists, he has been awarded a CAPS Grant in multi-media, a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
in 2004, a New York State Council on the Arts commission grant for flutist Barbara Held, a National Endowment for the Arts
grant for collaborative work with Blondell Cummings and Senga Nengdi, and a New York Foundation for the Arts
Fellowship in performance/emerging forms.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese artist who has worked with many different types of media throughout his career. He was born in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan in 1935, and he graduated from Chiba Japanese National University in 1957, majoring in Japanese literature. He became active in the Fluxus movement
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
in the 1960s and moved to the United States in 1972. He organized and participanted in many noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
performance groups such as Group Ongaku, Hi-Red Center, Team Random (the first computer art
Computer art
Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, videogame, web site, algorithm, performance or gallery installation...
group organized in Japan).
Yasunao Tone is known mostly for his musical work, much of which relies on unconventional techniques. Tone began manipulating compact disks to achieve uniquely mangled sounds in the early 1980s. For his 1985 album, Solo for Wounded CD, he damaged audio CDs and used the information that a CD player was able to extract from those discs to create new pieces. Tone's CD player based works employ a process of "de-controlling" the device's playback so that it randomly selects fragments from a set of sound materials. Tone has stated that the error-correction functionality of modern CD players has made it hard to continue to use this technique and, for this reason, he continues to use older equipment. For his collaboration with Florian Hecker, Palimpsest, he converted Japanese Man'yōshū poems to sound.
Always active in United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with avant-garde music
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
artists, he has been awarded a CAPS Grant in multi-media, a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...
in 2004, a New York State Council on the Arts commission grant for flutist Barbara Held, a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grant for collaborative work with Blondell Cummings and Senga Nengdi, and a New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
Fellowship in performance/emerging forms.
Selected discography
- (1997) Yasunao Tone: Solo for Wounded CD (TzadikTzadik RecordsTzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
) CD - (2001) Yasunao Tone: Wounded Man'Yo #38-9/2001 (Alku) 3" CD
- (2004) Yasunao Tone & Hecker: Palimpsest (MegoMego (label)Mego was an experimental electronic music independent record label based in Vienna, Austria. The word 'Mego' is an acronym referring to "My Eyes Glaze Over", an expression attributed to futurologist Herman Kahn .-History:Founded in 1994 by Ramon Bauer, Andreas Pieper and Peter Meininger, before...
) CD
See also
- Yasunao Tone: Noise Media Language. Ed. Brandon LaBelle (Los Angeles/Copenhagen: Errant Bodies Press, 2007). ISBN 0965557081.
- "Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art" by Brandon LaBelle (Continuum: New York, 2006), pp. 35–36, 39, 43, 45, 72, 153, 200, 218, 220-24, 241.
- "The Fluxus Reader" ed. Ken Friedman (John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1998).
- Caleb Stuart "Yasunao Tone's Wounded and Skipping Compact Discs: From Improvisation and Indeterminate Composition to Glitching CDs," Leonardo Electronic Almanac vol.10, no. 9, September 2002.