Following on from EM’s fine reissue of Wada’s Lament For The Rise & Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, a meditative drone piece for voice and homemade bagpipe, comes this phenomenal installation work for organ pipes and assorted automata (metal sheets stirred into life by motors and tubes struck by hammers).
Commissioned by the New York Hall Of Science to promote cooperative creativity, Wada worked in conjunction with electronics whizz David Rayna to connect a push-button control system to his musical designs within the cobalt blue glass confines of the Great Hall, allowing visitors to regulate the clatter of a particular pipe or thunderous rumble, to interact with The Appointed Cloud.
This particular one-hour recording was taken from the opening performance of the installation in October 1987 and documents Wada’s continued explorations into the sub-sonic sounds produced inside our heads (navigating the inner ear and fermenting within our imaginations), rather than those emanating from outside sources. While there are occasional bouts of ritual tranquillity here, this is a piece very much alive and in a state of flux, which sporadically explodes with a blast of dramatic bagpipe and sheet metal bombast – enough to make Hermann Nitsch’s heart sing.
