Established in 2000, ”The Formant Brothers" is a collaborative half-brother duo
specializing in composition and meditation by the older Miwa Masahiro and the younger
Sakonda Nobuyasu. Based on the medium of “voice,” they explore contemporary issues
at the intersection of technology and art from philosophical, aesthetic, musical, andtechnical viewpoints while aiming for machines to sing songs from the 21st century.

Notable works released by the Formant Brothers include:"Ordering a Pizza de Brothers" (2003), a performance where a duet of artificial voices
orders a pizza for delivery. "Le Tombeau de Freddie / L'Internationale" (2009, honorary
mention at the Prix Ars Electronica 2009 in Austria) contemplated the nature of music
via an apparatus named "Rokugaku" and incorporates a deceased rock star singing theleft-wing anthem "The Internationale" in Japanese. "NEO Dodoitsu - Six Japanese folksongs" (2009), programmed a MIDI keyboard through a Brothers Keyboard-to-Phoneme
Transfer Standard for Japanese language (BKPTSJ) to sing the kobushi singing technique.
"Sendai Dodonpa Bushi" (2010) featured a voice character named "Takane Kin" andreggae-inspired dance music based on folk songs from the Tohoku region. "Yume noWaltz" (2012), a mood ballad sung using a MIDI accordion interface to mimic theexpressive capabilities of bellowing. "PR(L)AYING VOICE / STABAT MATER" (2015)
attempted to sing a Latin "prayer" using Brother's Button-to-Phoneme Transfer Standardfor International Languages (BBPTSI). "VOCALISE for 8 speakers" (2018) created music
utilizing the non-linguistic vocal sounds of breathing and gasping. "Spirit World Radio"(2020) created a device for receiving voices from the spirit world.
Their work has gained attention for its integration of technology theory and media arts
theory as seen in "The Formant Brothers' Haunted House" (ICC InterCommunication
Center, 2010), an installation that discusses the spectra of voice, machine, body, andmedia. They have also delivered lectures, performances, and video presentations invarious formats, including at Tokyo University of the Arts, University of Greenwich inLondon, The University of Tokyo, and The Japanese Association for Semiotic Studies. In"Towards STREAMING ART" (Artes Publishing, 2023), edited by Akeo Okada andsupervised by Miwa Masahiro, they each contributed individual essays.
Miwa Masahiro was born in Tokyo in 1958. He studied composition at the Berlin
University of the Arts and the Robert Schumann Hochschule für Musik. Accolades
include the Irino Prize (1989), the Akutagawa Composition Award (2004), the Golden
Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica (2007), the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports,Science, and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize (2010), and the Saji Keizo Prize(2020) for the revival of his monologue opera "A New Era” (2017) and his audience-lesslive performance "Miwa Masahiro Festival - The Purified Night” (2020), among others.
He has published many works, including "The Complete Thoughts of Miwa Masahiro,Music and Art 1998-2010" (Artes Publishing, 2010), “Muramatsu Gear (Le Sacre DuPrintemps)” (CD, Fontec, 2012), and other musical scores. He formerly taught at theInstitute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences [IAMAS] and since 2024, has been aprofessor at the Kyoto University of the Arts, Institute for Philosophy and Science of Art.
Sakonda Nobuyasu was born in Kobe in 1961. A musician and media artist, he completed
his graduate studies in sociology at Kobe University. He has since created many
compositions and performance works using real-time voice synthesis he developed
independently through the programming software Max and has actively publishedarticles in media theory about voices and machines. Recently, his research has included
the function of sound in cinema. His publications include “Max Textbook" (co-authoredwith Masayuki Akamatsu, Rittor Music) and his solo CD "Clockwork Hermes" (childisc,2000). He continues to be active in the synthetic voice duo "The Formant Brothers" with
Miwa Masahiro. He is a professor in the Department of Visual Media at Nagoya
University of Arts and Sciences.