Discovering CASIO
My first connection with CASIO was when I was a child. My father had a little studio, and in that studio there was a CASIO keyboard. It had all these cool modes, and by pressing a button, I could create accompaniment and play along with it.
It gave me the first glimpse of how technology could help people engage with and learn music.
What has always inspired me most about CASIO is accessibility. CASIO does not just create great technology and beautiful products — it makes them deeply accessible, and makes them fit naturally into people’s lives.
Accessibility, for me, is about creating something that simply fits, regardless of what walk of life you come from.
I have also been deeply inspired by Toshio Kashio, one of CASIO’s founders. He had this amazing ability to invent new things, to design them beautifully and, over time, to make them more and more accessible.
I believe that this spirit lives on in the idea of “Sound for Style” — creating sounds and instruments that fit naturally with people’s lives and personal style.

ROLI’s Mission
At ROLI, we have a simple philosophy: to Free the Music.
We believe everyone has music inside them, but there are still too many barriers to bringing it out — choosing an instrument, finding a teacher, and learning all the different elements of what it takes to become a musician.
So we asked ourselves: what if we could use technology to make that easier, so we could free the music in everyone?
That has been my mission since the day I founded ROLI.
But before you can free the music, you first have to feel the music within. Once you feel that music, you can learn, express yourself and shape your own style.
That is the journey we want to support.

The Future of ROLI and CASIO
At ROLI, we have always focused on touch, sensation, and gesture. By bringing that together with CASIO’s passion for beautiful sound and accessibility, we believe this partnership can help people feel the music and find their own style.
It is a huge pleasure and an honor to partner with CASIO, a company that has contributed so much to music around the world.
This is just the beginning of some incredible and exciting new experiences that we are going to create together.

Roland Lamb

What Makes ROLI Unique
ROLI brings a perspective and set of technologies that are very different from CASIO’s, yet we share the same belief: music should constantly evolve.
Ever since ROLI was founded in the UK, I have been impressed by the originality of everything they create—from the intuitive design of ROLI Learn to Airwave and the iconic Seaboard. ROLI is a company that continues to create products and services that change not only how people play music, but how they experience it.
What resonates with us most is ROLI’s focus on touch, sensation, and gesture. Their determination to rethink music through new ways of playing is a true expression of innovation, and something we deeply relate to.

What CASIO Has Always Aimed For
At CASIO, we have always created sound with the care and craftsmanship of an instrument maker.
But for us, sound has never been the end goal. We believe sound should lead to something more: a way of enjoying music that fits each individual, a lifestyle shaped by music, and new musical cultures. That is the idea behind “Sound for Style.”

Shaping a New Musical Future
This collaboration is an important step in taking “Sound for Style” even further.
Together with ROLI, a company that continues to explore new possibilities for music, we want to combine our strengths and ideas to help each person discover a style of music that feels uniquely their own.

Tetsuya Kawai