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RTV: Tenko

Release Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010

In this RTV episode we feature Tenko, a specialist of the voice art, and watch selections from her fully improvised set.

Performance date: 02/11/2010
Episode release date: 03/23/2010


Tenko is a Japanese musician who has been performing improvised music for the past thirty years. Touring Europe, America, and Japan, she has performed in many festivals since 1985 with Otomo Yoshihide, Ikue Mori, Fred Frith, and others. Tenko kicked off her career in music with a female rock group, Mizutama Shobodan, in 1979. Two years later in New York, she got captivated by improvised music, and, back in Japan, she started performing in a vocal duo, The Honeymoons. In 1984, in New York, Tenko made her debut as a soloist and, before long, started working with New Yorkers such as Fred Frith, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, and David Moss. She also performed and recorded with Arto Lindsay, Wayne Horvitz, Japanese Otomo Yoshihide, Tatsuya Yoshida, Ikue Mori duo, and Wni-Gohan female improvisers group.