Tenori-on
Encyclopedia
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
, designed and created by Japan
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
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Toshio Iwai
Toshio Iwai
is a Japanese interactive media and installation artist who has also created a number of commercial video games. In addition he has worked in television, music performance, museum design and digital musical instrument design.-Education and early work:...
and Yu Nishibori of the Music and Human Interface Group, Yamaha
Yamaha (manufacturer)
is a multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, electronics, motorcycles and power sports equipment.-History:...
Center for Advanced Sound Technology. It consists of a screen, held in the hands, of a sixteen by sixteen grid of LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
switches, any of which can be activated in a number of ways to create sounds. The LED switches are held within a magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
or plastic frame, which has two built-in speakers
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
located on the top of frame, as well as a dial and buttons that control the type of sound and beats per minute produced.
There are two versions of the device available. The original TNR-W (Tenori-On white) features a magnesium frame, 256 rear panel LEDs and can run on batteries whilst the more affordable TNR-O (Tenori-On Orange) features a white plastic frame, has no rear LEDs and does not take batteries. The modes and sound sets in these instruments are the same.
Both devices have an LCD screen on the bottom edge of the frame. Using the connection function, it is possible to play a synchronized session, or to send and receive songs between two of the devices.
Tenori-on was demonstrated at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
2005 held in Los Angeles, CA in August, 2005 . A detailed discussion of the design of the Tenori-on is given in a paper presented at NIME 2006 conference held at IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
, Centre Pompidou in Paris, France in June, 2006 .
Toshio Iwai has been using the Tenori-on in live performances (such as at Sónar
Sónar
Sónar is an annual three-day music festival held in Barcelona, Spain. It is described officially as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. Music is by far the main aspect of the festival....
in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, in June 2006, and Futuresonic
Futuresonic
Futuresonic is an annual festival of art, music and ideas. It involves a freeform mix of live events, exhibitions, workshops and talks in up to 30 different venues and spaces across Manchester, UK. Futuresonic was established in 1995 with the first major festival in September 1996...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, in July 2006, the Futuresonic 2006 live show had some good feedback from the audience and that was one of the most important triggers to make it a real product). The instrument was launched in London on September 4, 2007 for a recommended retail price of $1,200 (£599). To promote this launch, three prominent electronic and experimental musicians -- Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
, Atom Heart, and Robert Lippok
To Rococo Rot
To Rococo Rot is a Berlin-based trio who combine electronic and acoustic elements to create instrumental post-rock and electronic music. The group is composed of bassist Stefan Schneider and brothers Robert and Ronald Lippok . Ronald Lippok has also gained praise for his work in Tarwater...
-- were invited to compose "demo" tracks utilizing the device. These tracks have since been released as promotional MP3s from the Tenori-on website.
Iwai's intention in creating the Tenori-on is to create an electronic instrument of beauty. In his own words:
- "In days gone by, a musical instrument had to have a beauty, of shape as well as of sound, and had to fit the player almost organically. [...] Modern electronic instruments don't have this inevitable relationship between the shape, the sound, and the player. What I have done is to try to bring back these [...] elements and build them in to a true musical instrument for the digital age."
The instrument builds on Iwai's previous work, such as his Electroplankton
Electroplankton
Electroplankton is an interactive music video game developed by Toshio Iwai and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America and Europe. This game allows the player to interact with animated plankton...
software for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
in the blending of light and sound, as well as the aesthetic elements of the interface.
A World Tour introducing Tenori-on began in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 12, and finished in Tokyo on 25 April 2008. Artists on the tour included Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
, Atom Heart, To Rococo Rot
To Rococo Rot
To Rococo Rot is a Berlin-based trio who combine electronic and acoustic elements to create instrumental post-rock and electronic music. The group is composed of bassist Stefan Schneider and brothers Robert and Ronald Lippok . Ronald Lippok has also gained praise for his work in Tarwater...
, Pole
Pole (musician)
Pole is the artistic name of Stefan Betke, a German electronic music artist commonly associated with the glitch genre as well as dubtronica.-History:Pole took his name from a Waldorf 4-Pole filter which he accidentally dropped and broke in 1996...
, Robert Lippok, Sutekh, The Books
The Books
The Books are an American duo, formed in New York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their releases typically incorporate samples of obscure sounds and speech...
, Krikor, Safety Scissors
Safety Scissors
Safety Scissors is Matthew Patterson Curry, a minimal techno artist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for a short while in order to attend San Francisco Art Institute. Curry then decided to focus more on music and eventually joined Belief Systems/Context Records...
, I Am Robot and Proud
I am Robot and Proud
Shaw-Han Liem, better known by the alias I am Robot and Proud, is a Canadian indie electronic artist from Toronto, Ontario. He has released albums under the labels Darla and & Records.-History:...
and Nathan Michel
Nathan Michel
Nathan Michel is an American experimental electronic musician. He primarily composes and performs his music on a laptop. He has released albums on labels such as Tigerbeat6, SKI-PP and Sonig and has collaborated with well known laptop group DAT politics...
.
Performers using the instrument
English comedian Bill BaileyBill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
occasionally uses this instrument in his live performances including his 2009-2010 world tour; it is featured in Dandelion Mind.
UK electronic singer Little Boots
Little Boots
Victoria Christina Hesketh, also known by her stage name/pseudonym Little Boots, is an English electropop singer-songwriter. Her stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet...
is also known for using a Tenori-On for live performances, and it has featured in the videos she has released on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
has used a Tenori-on in her live performance of the song Who Is It on Voltaic tour.
Jon Hume
Jon Hume
Jon Daniel Hume is the eldest of the three brothers who make up the alternative rock band, Evermore.Although Jon was born in Australia, after his family's move to New Zealand, his brothers, Peter and Dann were born in Feilding...
from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
band Evermore has a Tenori-On built into his silver Gibson guitar used on-stage during the Truth of The World and subsequent tours.
Gotan Project
Gotan Project
Gotan Project is a musical group based in Paris, consisting of musicians Philippe Cohen Solal , Eduardo Makaroff , and Christoph H. Müller .-History:...
on tour 2010/2011.
Mexican electronic music act Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible
Nortec Collective
Nortec Collective is a musical ensemble formed by various individual one or two man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their sound genre mixes electronica with musical elements and instrumentation of Tambora and Norteño music, resulting in the nortec ...
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
frequently uses a Tenori-On when performing his song My Monkey
Jean-Jacques Birgé
Jean-Jacques Birgé
Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer , film director , multimedia author , sound designer Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané which with he records...
has been using a Tenori-on live since Feb.2008, now playing simultaneously with two.
See also
- Little BootsLittle BootsVictoria Christina Hesketh, also known by her stage name/pseudonym Little Boots, is an English electropop singer-songwriter. Her stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet...
- ReactableReactableThe Reactable is an electronic musical instrument with a tabletop Tangible User Interface that has been developed within the at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain by Sergi Jordà, Marcos Alonso, Martin Kaltenbrunner and Günter Geiger....
- List of musical instruments#Electronic instruments
External links
- Yamaha Tenori-on Official Global Website
- Yamaha Tenori-on Official USA Website
- Yamaha Tenori-on Official European Website
- This gadget rocks! The world's newest musical instrument, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
- Source for version 2.0 of the Tenori-On firmware