yasunao tone/talibam!/sam kulik: double automatism

New York City's experimental duo Talibam! team up with Fluxus artist and electronic avant-gardist Yasunao Tone and trombonist Sam Kulik for a confrontational sonic attack, fired by an array of analog synths and other electronic devices. David Novak, author of Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation (2013), on Double Automatism: "Bringing together the most calamitous materials from their home planets of noise, glitch, and free improvisation, Tone and Talibam! are at once the likeliest and unlikeliest of conspirators. Despite making his home in New York since 1971, Tone's foundational electronic work harkens back to his early days in revolutionary Japanese avant-garde collectives Ongaku and Hi Red Center, and resonates with his groundbreaking deconstructions of digital CD sound in the 1980s. Meanwhile in the post-art worlds of millennial Brooklyn, Talibam! have cranked out their own absurd, profane, and unclassifiable improvisational style, bringing their provocations around the world, and proficiently mediating jazz, rock, and hip-hop along the way; trombonist Sam Kulik brings an acoustic element to the mix that invokes the live sonic mixes of Musica Elettronica Viva. In their collaboration Double Automatism, they forge a confrontational new alliance in the transnational history of experimental sound, with the noisiest consequences imaginable." The idea for Double Automatism was born in 2012 when Talibam! and Kulik were invited to interpret Tone's graphic scores and game pieces as part of the Museum of Modern Art's 2013 exhibition, Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde. They soon met Tone and the group immediately developed a mutual affinity. Six months later the trio invited Tone for a recording session, with Kulik on trombone, Matt Mottel on his Roland Alpha Juno 1 analog synth, Kevin Shea (Mostly Other People Do the Killing) on electronic MIDI mallet percussion, and Tone using his self-developed MP3 Deviations on his computer. The two epic pieces on Double Automatism not only continue Talibam!'s enduring explorations of new musical territory beyond genre limitations, but also forcefully testify to Tone's unique artistry (previously documented on collaborations with Russell Haswell and Florian Hecker and solo works on Tzadik and Asphodel). Pressed on 180-gram vinyl; presented in silk-screened sleeve; includes download code. Limited to 500 copies.