Yasunao Tone (born 1935) is a Japanese-American artist, writer, theorist, and composer. According to critic Alan Cummings, he is “part of a whole generation of post-war iconoclasts who followed in the wake of John Cage’s discovery of indeterminacy, determined to shake music and art out of their enslavement to the high art, romanticist ideals of the 19th century.” He co-founded Group Ongaku (Music group) in the early 1960s and was part of the Fluxus group in New York, Downtown improvisers, and the European electronica experimentalists. An outstanding experimentalist, Yasunao coined the term “paramedia art” to describe his work, and his artistic inventions include prepared CD and interventions with an MP3 system. Honors include the Ars Electronica Golden Nica award and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts award in music.
In the second half of an extended interview with Tone Yasunao for post, the composer, artist, and writer discusses the trajectory of his work from graphic scores in the 1960s to his recent work with digital media.
An extensive two-part interview with Tone, together with documentation from a concert of his works that was held at The Museum of Modern Art in January 2013 in the context of the exhibition Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde, and with material related to his output, since the 1960s, as a musician, artist, and critic.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENT: Originally published in 20-seiki Buyo 5 (20th-century dance), September 1960. Translated into English by Colin Smith In May of 1960, our group chanced upon an absolutely new experiment in music. It was an improvisational piece of musique concrète, executed collectively. Just before discovering this approach, we had been preparing materials for a tape…
