Yamaha’s Tenori-On Comes to the U.S.

The futuristic electronic instrument will get a formal introduction this month on both coasts, with its inventor and other electronic musicians present to show it off.

Electronic musicians, ready your fingers: Yamaha’s futuristic Tenori-On electronic instrument is coming to the United States. Yamaha will swing by Brooklyn and San Francisco later this month to introduce U.S. audiences to the Lite-Brite-like musical contraption.

The product of Japanese media artist Tosio Iwai, the Tenori-On uses an interface of 256 LED lights arranged in a grid to produce music from touch. Yamaha’s YouTube demo, which has garnered over 750,000 views (and debate over whether or not it’s an instrument), shows how the device uses the LEDs to represent different sounds that can added, deleted and altered by simply touching the lights.

The launch events will take place at Southpaw in Brooklyn on April 16, and 1015 Folsom in San Francisco on April 18. Iwai will be present for both events, along with electronic artists who have begun to use the Tenori-On, such as Sutekh, Safety Scissors, Pole, and I Am Robot And Proud. The events will be open to the public, and attendees can register at the official Tenori-On launch site.

Although Yamaha will introduce the device at the events and has announced plans to bring it to the U.S. in 2008, exact launch dates and prices have not been firmed up. The Tenori-On is currently available in the United Kingdom for £599 ($1,178 USD).