Bill Wells' latest project presents a unique Japanese pop adventure. Wells, one of Scotland's most forward-looking musicians, joins four of Japan's leading acts on a tour that promises some of the freshest music and most invigorating performances you will experience all year. Marrying ear-catching melodies with startling spontaneity and a massive range of influences with utterly personal inventiveness, this once in a lifetime package promises music that is at once easily accessible and daringly new.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz features husband and wife duo Tori and Reiko Kudo, a multi-instrumentalist and singer respectively whose music matches the translation of their name: be quick if you steal something. A virtuoso jazz pianist by training who has worked in settings from solo to orchestral, Tori Kudo performs his melodic songs in the moment, responding to everything from a cough to a thunderclap in the spirit of entertainment, as audiences at their previous British concerts will keenly attest. The duo's son, Namio, will join them on selected dates on laptop and percussion.

Also already familiar to UK audiences through his appearances at Triptych 2005, Takuji Aoyagi's one-man show, Kama Aina, combines mastery of the six-string banjo with highly individual live sampling and loops.

Making their UK debut in their own right, former colleagues of the Kudos, Saya and Takashi Ueno are Tenniscoats. Their psychedelic pop songs, sung to keyboards, saxophones and guitar accompaniments, are replete with both melodic hooks and fearless exploration and complemented BMX Bandits on a recent Japanese tour.

Kazumi Nikaido is another UK debutante, a singer-songwriter of astonishing vocal range and extraordinary depth whose work has been reviewed enthusiastically by leading music magazine The Wire.

This TUNE UP tour came about as a result of Wells' two months-long sojourn in Japan in 2004 which included a ten-concert tour and produced two CDs, the first of which, Osaka Bridge, is released imminently on the Karaoke Kalk label. Wells, whose growing international reputation includes a recent tour with Swedish pop sensation Jens Lekman, will feature in a special final set with the Japanese musicians following short individual sets by each act.

Wells said: "This is a rare opportunity to see such major figures from the Japanese scene on the one stage in the UK. What marks these musicians out is the fact that they are so convincing across a whole range of music and experts at the extremes of melodic pop and free improvisation."

For further information contact Wendy Niblock, TUNE UP Publicist, on 07961 814834. Email: wendyniblock@metronet.co.uk

TUNE UP TOUR DATES

Tue 11 April 2006 at 7.30pm
Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline
Tickets: £10/£9/£8
Box Office: 01383 314000

Wed 12 April 2006 at 8.00pm
CCA, Glasgow
Tickets: £10/£8
Box Office: 0141 3524900

Thu 13 April 2006 at 7.30pm
The Tolbooth, Stirling
Tickets: £10/£8
Box Office: 01786 274000

Fri 14 April 2006 at 8.00pm
An Tobar, Tobermory
Tickets: £8/£6
Box Office: 01688 302211

Sun 16 April 2006 at 7.30pm
Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
Tickets: £9/£6
Box Office: 01224 642230

Tue 18 April 2006 at 8.00pm
An Lanntair, Stornoway
Tickets: £10/£8/£7
Box Office: 01851 703307

Fri 21 April 2006 at 8.00pm
Lyth Arts Centre
Tickets: £10/£8/£5
Box Office: 01955 641270

Sat 22 April 2006 at 8.00pm
Woodwick House, Orkney
Tickets: £9/£7
Box Office: 01856 751330