FutureEverything 2010: Ryoji Ikeda + Mika Vainio :: May 12, 2010; 9:00 - 11:00 pm :: BBC Studio 7, Oxford Road, Manchester, United Kingdom :: Ryoji Ikeda - test pattern [live set] ::Mika Vainio [live] :: Buy tickets here :: Tickets also available from Eastern Bloc (Oldham Street), Piccadilly Records (Oldham Street), The Soup Kitchen (Spear Street) & Gaffs (Fallowfield).

An opportunity to see two of the world’s leading sound artists perform on the same stage. The challenging output of Japanese composer Ryoji Ikeda places emphasis on complex A/V terrain, with compositions deriving from a fascination with data, sound and light. Mika Vainio is best known as one half of the Finnish electronic duo Pan Sonic, and through his connections to the pioneering Sähkö record label he co-founded in 1993.

RYOJI IKEDA :: The award winning work of Japanese electronic composer and visual artist, Ryoji Ikeda, is highly imaginative, challenging and innovative - concerned primarily with the manipulation of noise and tone in a variety of ‘raw’ states and working with frequencies at the edges of human hearing as well as intense visual representation. Aside from his work as a solo artist, Ikeda has also collaborated with others including Carsten Nicolai and art collective Dumb Type.

test pattern [live set], the latest audiovisual work in Ikeda’s datamatics series, presents intense flickering black and white imagery, which floats and convulses in darkness to a stark and powerful, highly synchronised soundtrack. Through a real–time computer programme, test pattern converts Ikeda’s audio signal patterns into tightly synchronised barcode patterns on screen. The velocity of the moving images is ultra–fast, some hundreds of frames per second, so that the work provides a performance test for the audio and visual devices, as well as a response test for the audience’s perceptions.

MIKA VAINIO :: Mika Vainio has long been considered to be one of the leading lights of the Finnish music scene, inspiring a new generation of electronic music producers and helping to shape the sound of contemporary techno music. The highly influential producer’s input has been extensive - co-founding the pioneering Sähkö label in 1992, working with Ilpo Väisänen as Pan Sonic, releasing his music on labels including Touch and Wavetrap and producing music with the likes of Björk, Chicks on Speed and Suicide’s Alan Vega.