I’ve been skeptical about Yamaha’s Tenori-On since it was announced, suggesting that the device was sexy, but more style than substance.
Now, a new group has emerged that could challenge that idea - The Tenorions - an trio of babes that play Yamaha’s unique new instrument.
The Tenorions seem to be sort of The Monkees of electronic [...]

I’ve been skeptical about the Monome & Tenori-On as musical instruments, since they are basically a collection of on-off switches. 
This video, though, by Edison, challenges my preconceptions and offers a tempting preview of his upcoming album.
Should be very cool!
via Matthew Davidson 

Got $1,200?
Then maybe it’s time to get your Tenori-On.
Keyfax NewMedia has announced that it has Yamaha’s Tenori-On in stock.
With that in mind, here are five reasons to get your Tenori-On:

Ooh, the pretty lights.
It’s cheaper than a Monome.
You’ve got a better demo video in you than Yamaha’s boring demo Tenori-On videos.
You want to use it with [...]

EM’s Geary Yelton has an interesting review of the Tenori-On.
Their take:
You could easily argue that the Tenori-on is not suitable for professional music production. It has no filters, LFOs, envelope generators, nor any of the user-programmable parameters you’d expect in a real synthesizer. It has only one oscillator per voice, and it provides no access [...]

This Tenori-On Meets Kyma video is sort of sexed up - in fact it sort of hypnotized me into thinking I need one of these things.
Anyway - here’s the scoop on the video:
In order to tap the real power of Yamaha’s new Tenori-on, it helps to pair it with external equipment capable of producing more [...]

Yamaha says that the Tenori-On is a hit - and it will turn you into a composer in 20 minutes!
It has already sold a few hundred of the new instrument at 121,000 yen (1,170 dollars) each, compared to planned sales of 1,000 in Japan for the entire first year, according to the company.
The square device, [...]

Yamaha’s Tenori-On is getting a prominent introduction with Björk’s latest tour.
The new controller/synthesizer is part of the rig of Damian Taylor, above, who uses the Tenori-On on the track Who Is It?.
“Björk felt it would be cool to feature the gear,” says Taylor, “ to make it part of the stage set rather than using [...]

Why is it that, despite a well-executed PR campaign, so many videos of the Tenori-On are so boring?
Here are five Tenori-On videos that are not just visually boring, but they suggest that the Tenori-On encourages a certain sameness of sound:
I Am Robot And Proud @ Cruising Iris

Making MIDI Music with the Yamaha TENORI-ON

John Herndon from [...]

The Tenori-On hype continues.
Gizmodo took a look at it and loves it:
Tenori-On, the crazy light-up handheld synthesizer from Yamaha we’ve been geeked about for months, officially launched in the US tonight. We got our hands on one and simply put, we were amazed.
Artists at the event told us that the visual aspects of the device [...]

Oliver Chesler let me note on an earlier Tenori-On story saying that he’d posted about his experiences at the Tenori-On introduction at the club Berghain in Berlin:
When I walked into Berghain they had kiosks hooked up with several Tenori-on available to use. Right away I was shocked at how bright the white leds bling out at you. [...]

The international hype juggernaut for the Tenori-On continues.
Yamaha Corporation of America is set to introduced the Tenori-on in the United States with launch events for the public and press in New York on April 16 and San Francisco on April 18, 2008.
Tenori-on literally means “sound in the palm of your hand” and is a twenty-first [...]

The Tenori-On, which previously had been available only in the UK, is now getting a global launch.
Yamaha has announced launch dates in:

Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany
Paris, France
Montreal, Quebec
New York, NY
San Francisco, CA
Tokyo, Japan

The events will include presentations by inventor Toshio Iwai and performances by early Tenori-On users. As for me - I still think the experimental [...]

pepemogt has posted an interesting jam with the Tenori-On as Midi-CV-Gate controller for Analogue Solutions tr-808 and tr-909 drums, the EML modular synth, Drumulator and Oberheim Xpander.

PC World has published its list of the 25 most innovative products of the year, and Yamaha’s Tenori-On is number 16:
16. Yamaha Tenori-On
Innovation: Inspired and intuitive handheld instrument redefines music-making.
Benefit: Nothing else even comes close to Japanese media artist Toshio Iwai’s digital instrument.
While the Tenori-On is likely to appeal to a fairly specialized audience, the [...]

Months of hype about Toshio Iwai’s innovative music gadget, the Tenori-On, appear to be paying off for Yamaha. Yamaha reports that, having sold out three months’ stocks within hours of the launch, they plan to forward production and air freight supplies into the UK to keep pace with demand.
Peter Peck, Marketing Manager Music Production at [...]