Imagine erratic static, metallic squeals and cacophonous spikes of white noise harsh enough to make you fear for your hearing. It all sounds like a broken CD that’s been crudely reconstructed and shoved back into its player. In fact, that’s exactly what it is..
This is a helpful snapshot into the creative impulses of the now 88-year-old artist, who has made a career of turning electronic media against itself. If you’ve read about Tone, chances are it was in the context of glitch – that buggy, hyperactive subgenre of electronic music made popular by 1990s electronic musicians who no doubt looked to works likeBut even by the relatively out-there standards of glitch masters like Aphex Twin and Autechre, Tone’s compositions are radical.
the soft-spoken artist looks more like a mad scientist than a composer. “Tone’s whole work has been about really trying to be outside music,” Jackson explains.Intermedia FoundationBorn in Tokyo in 1935, Tone became a staple in Japan’s burgeoning post-war avant-garde scenes after college.