The events organized in the course of the monthlong Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo have run the gamut from tired to inspired. This breezy, entertaining evening of improvised music at the Showa-era Shinseiki dance hall in Uguisudani slotted happily into the latter category, while putting the current class of RBMA participants where they belonged: at center stage.
For "Chaos Conductor", two well-known figureheads from the Japanese avant-garde took turns to lead ensembles of RBMA freshmen.
First up was Boredoms leader Eye, who perched on a swivel stool ringed by 17 musicians, all of them playing laptops that appeared to be running the same music software. Twirling on his seat and using a variety of hand movements — sweeps, points, sign language, air doodles — he coaxed the group into building layers of rumbling, oscillating bass tones that swelled and ebbed away, occasionally starting to spit and burble, like sonic magma.