Music Ally

The headline says it all: in Japan, Sony has been commissioning some startling short videos from experimental local musicians to promote its Walkman devices.

One artist called Atsuhiro Ito is wielding a great big glowing lightstick (an Optron, apparently) which makes screechy techno (above), while Taeji Saeai uses a lightpen and cameras, projectors and software to turn his gestures into music.

Meanwhile, Fuyuki Yamakawa plays his skull with a bone conduction mic. They haven’t made us want to buy Walkmans, but they are rather marvellous. You can watch them all below the jump.

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We’ve been writing a fair bit about Android recently – Google’s mobile operating system – and now it’s getting even more relevant to the music industry. Possibly. Well, Sony Ericsson has confirmed plans to make its first Android phone, and there may be a Walkman angle.

“Sony Ericsson is excited to announce its membership of the Open Handset Alliance and confirm its intention to develop a handset based on the Android platform,” says the company’s Rikko Sakaguchi. “We believe Sony Ericsson can bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Alliance drawing on the successes of the Walkman and Cyber-shot sub-brands.”

So far, Walkman phones have tended to be massmarket handsets rather than smartphones, so an Android Walkman would be a lipsmacking prospect. Watch this space…