Last night the future came to Park Slope, and— surprise!—it's Japanese. Yamaha hosted an event at Southpaw, unveiling the Tenori-on, a new digital musical instrument designed by Toshio Iwai, famed Nintendo game designer and installation artist. The event included performances by numerous electronic artists/DJs, including Robert Lippok, Sutekh, Safety Scissors and Pole, who all used the Tonori-on in their sets. The resulting ruckus of bleeps, boops and beats prompted one bystander to comment, "They brought the noise music to attract all the nerds."

Nerdy though it was, the Tenori-on is pretty damn cool. In between musicians, Iwai described how he'd wanted to create a digital instrument with a truly unique interface. Most digital/electronic musicians use either a keyboard or laptop, which are both based on older, analog forms: the piano and the typewriter. Iwai wanted something that could do what a keyboard or a laptop can do, but with a more intuitive and visual interface, better suited to live improvisation. To that end the Tonori-on is a 1 1/4-inch thick square pad, covered with a 16X16 grid of 256 LED buttons. When you touch a button, it lights up and creates a sound. Sounds can be programed in multiple layers and modes, and the whole thing can be plugged into your laptop, keyboard, whatever. Most interestingly, by "drawing" figures on the pad you can create visual light patterns you like, and then see (hear?) how they sound.

Wolfgang von Stuerner, a composer and "sound organizer" who goes by the name WvS, was in the crowd and mentioned that he'd been a part of the testing group for the instrument. "It was very intriguing," he said, "though the price point is too high." At a whopping $1200, with only 100 Tenori-ons being released in the USA on May 1, it's true getting your hands on one is not all that likely. One of the questions throughout many of the musicians' sets was how much they were actually using the Tenori-on, and not the laptops, mixers and other instruments on stage. Robert Lippok, whose noise session steered clear of any melody, told me afterward that he'd created "95%" of his set using the machine.

Meanwhile, in Southpaw's basement, Tenori-ons were set up at numerous stations so that lay-Brooklynites could have their shot at them. It took me a little bit to get the hang of the thing, but it's a really beautiful, intuitive object; making layered beats and visuals with the touch of your fingers turns out to be a lot of fun. Upstairs the bleeps and bloops continued, a Robot lullaby of sorts. Though the Tenori-on might not end up in everybody's homes or replace any synthesizers, it's definitely a sign of things to come: a visually spectacular, lightweight instrument that anyone can play? Sign me up.