After his acclaimed performance at last year's edition, we invited Japanese artist Keiichiro Shibuya to put together a program under the umbrella of his label and media lab ATAK: a night with leading artists of electronic music and audio-visual performance.
 
In 2002, after his graduation with a degree in composition from Tokyo's National University of Fine Arts and Music, Keiichiro Shibuya founded ATAK as a collective that includes creators from various fields, such as music, design, fashion and science. It soon developed into a lively hub of experimental sound research and the crossing of art and music. Working on installations, live events, audio releases and sound design, the output of ATAK takes many forms. As a music label ATAK publishes Japanese and international cutting edge electro-acoustic works. Shibuya states the music of Pan Sonic and Yasunao Tone as deeply formative for the development of ATAK. The more happy we are that we were able to get these two influential innovators of electronic music on board for night.
 
Pan Sonic was formed in 1992 in Turku, Finland by Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. Pan Sonic released more than ten albums, a slew of EPs and a DVD, and have collaborated with legends such as Alan Vega, Barry Adamson and David Cunningham. The group has become one of the best known Finnish electronic music groups, renown for their harshly minimalist, high volume live performances. Pan Sonic's concert with ATAK is one of only very few appearances in 2009.
 
Yasunao Tone was born in Tokyo in 1935 and resides in New York since 1972. He is the co-founder of Group Ongaku, an original member of the Japanese Fluxus movement, and a legend in electronic music. Tone will perform his piece "Paramedia Mix 08" which is an instance of his long term musical project dedicated to the exploratory use of manipulated CDs. Since the 80ies Tone develops his unique musical aesthetic, based on scratched CDs and their use as a medium for live performance.
 
The ATAK core team is represented by Keiichiro Shibuya and evala. Shibuya released his first solo album, the highly praised ATAK000 keiichiro shibuya, in 2004. With an extremely dense and rich sound, focusing on tone and rhythm the album was a milestone for Shibuya's musical development. His music is often based on cellular automata and other generative methods.
 
Evala is a sound artist and programmer based in Tokyo. In 2004 he founded the independent label "port". His first album initial with its strong and sensitive sounds had a huge impact on Japan's electronic music scene. evala's signature style is an uncompromisingly artificial editing process of field recorded material. For ATAK NIGHT 4 he also programmed the visuals for Shibuya's live set.
 
Organized in collaboration by Les Jardin des Pilotes, Netmage Festival and CTM. With the kind support of the Japan Foundation.
 
> atak.jp