Yoshi Wada

Yoshi Wada has often said that The Appointed Cloud is his favorite of his own works, and listening to this remastered edition makes clear why. Staged at the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science in 1987, the piece was Wada's first large-scale interactive installation, featuring a custom pipe organ and homemade instruments controlled by computer through an interface and software designed by engineer David Rayna, known for his work with La Monte Young. The space itself—designed for the 1964-65 World's Fair, with spaceships hanging from the ceiling—provided the perfect container for Wada's sonic vision, a cathedral of both ancient and futuristic resonance.

This recording captures the opening performance, with Wada joined by Bob Dombrowski and Wayne Hankin on bagpipes, and Michael Pugliese on timpani and tam-tam, performing alongside the installation operated by Rayna. The result is monumental: deep organ tones that seem to emerge from the earth itself, the wailing of bagpipes creating overtone clouds, metallic shimmer from sheet metal and pipe gongs, all converging into something between ritual and science fiction. Wada's work has always existed at the intersection of East and West, ancient and modern, handmade and technological, and The Appointed Cloud represents these convergences at their most sublime.

At 60 minutes, the piece might seem demanding on paper, but as Wada notes, "it didn't feel like it." Time operates differently in this music—minutes expand and contract, the listener's perception shifts, the boundaries between sound and space dissolve. Stephan Mathieu's careful mastering reveals details in the original recording by John Driscoll that might have been lost, allowing the full complexity of Wada's sonic architecture to emerge. Originally released in 2008 by EM Records and Edition Omega Point, this Saltern reissue makes an essential work available again, documenting a singular moment when installation, performance, technology, and visionary imagination converged perfectly.