Open Reel Ensemble / Braun Tube Jazz Band
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Formed in 2009 by Ei Wada and his friends, Open Reel Ensemble combines old school, reel-to-reel tape decks and modern technology to form “musical instruments” they use for performance of their compositions. Ei Wada also has his solo project “Braun Tube Jazz Band”, which uses TV picture tubes to generate sounds.
Formed 2009 by Ei Wada and college fellows Kimitoshi Sato, Haruka Yoshida, Takumi Namba, and Masaru Yoshida (bass), Open Reel Ensemble combines old school, reel-to-reel (‘open reel’) tapes and modern technology into a ‘musical instrument’.
The group roots in leader Wada’s mid-teen days, when he obtained a reel-to-reel tape deck almost discarded from a radio station. After fooling around not knowing how to operate it, he, at one point, misperceived it as a ‘musical instrument’. By touching the reel and the exposed magnetic tape, he experienced the sense of ‘physically intervening in music and time’, and ‘playing the sound of the tape itself”. In 2008, Wada and Sato began developing a ‘reel-to-reel tape deck with USB ports’ by incorporating a computer in order to explore ‘the potential of a reel-to-reel tape deck as an instrument’.
Civilization critic Ivan Illich once said: “A convivial tool offers the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruit of its user’s vision.” ‘Convivial’ derives from a French word that means to live together in joy; Illich described convivial tools as “tools used apart from their industrial values”. Precisely, Open Reel Ensemble pursues an alternative value of an obsolete tool as a ‘convivial tool’.
To manipulate a reel-to-reel tape deck as a ‘musical instrument’, a USB port was attached to enable the computer (and Max/MSP) to control. This allowed originally incapable performances, remote control, OSC interface, and sounds created by controlling the spin of the reel. In addition, they attached a sound oscillator that directly vibrates the tape. Convinced of a world of people jamming with this instrument, they envisioned this project as a band as well. They construct music as an ensemble by manipulating reel-to-reel tape decks with all their might and by using voices and sounds sampled on the spot, pursuing an alternative value of a forgotten media form, and attempting to explore the world of ‘convivial tools’.
Braun Tube Jazz Band won the Art Division Excellence Prize at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009, while Open Reel Ensemble won the grand prize at the Interactive Division of the 14th Student CG, an association of the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2008.
The group roots in leader Wada’s mid-teen days, when he obtained a reel-to-reel tape deck almost discarded from a radio station. After fooling around not knowing how to operate it, he, at one point, misperceived it as a ‘musical instrument’. By touching the reel and the exposed magnetic tape, he experienced the sense of ‘physically intervening in music and time’, and ‘playing the sound of the tape itself”. In 2008, Wada and Sato began developing a ‘reel-to-reel tape deck with USB ports’ by incorporating a computer in order to explore ‘the potential of a reel-to-reel tape deck as an instrument’.
Civilization critic Ivan Illich once said: “A convivial tool offers the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruit of its user’s vision.” ‘Convivial’ derives from a French word that means to live together in joy; Illich described convivial tools as “tools used apart from their industrial values”. Precisely, Open Reel Ensemble pursues an alternative value of an obsolete tool as a ‘convivial tool’.
To manipulate a reel-to-reel tape deck as a ‘musical instrument’, a USB port was attached to enable the computer (and Max/MSP) to control. This allowed originally incapable performances, remote control, OSC interface, and sounds created by controlling the spin of the reel. In addition, they attached a sound oscillator that directly vibrates the tape. Convinced of a world of people jamming with this instrument, they envisioned this project as a band as well. They construct music as an ensemble by manipulating reel-to-reel tape decks with all their might and by using voices and sounds sampled on the spot, pursuing an alternative value of a forgotten media form, and attempting to explore the world of ‘convivial tools’.
Braun Tube Jazz Band won the Art Division Excellence Prize at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009, while Open Reel Ensemble won the grand prize at the Interactive Division of the 14th Student CG, an association of the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2008.
