Tenori-On: Weird Coolness From the Creator of Electroplankton

You all remember Electroplankton, right? It was that colorful music toy that had us all pokin’ our DSs until any vague hint of a tune dissolved into dissonant noise. Well, the creator of that little wonder non-game, Toshio Iwai, is back with a newer and more ambitious product: the Yamaha Tenori-On. This nifty little music sequencer allows the user to play around with a grid of LED lights to create some neat musical compositions that are also pretty fun to watch in action. Though in a minimalistic manner, the device definitely continues Electroplankton’s theme of combining visuals with sound and inducing a bit of synesthesia.

You’ll want to check out the site and watch various musicians take a stab at creating a composition with the device, but you can also check past the cut to see a cool demo that demonstrates how neat the concept is.

Yamaha Tenori-On

Also, here’s a good link on Toshio Iwai where you can view some of his other interesting concepts.