Alan Licht's revelatory lists of rare and obscure minimalism releases.
See all2014 repress! Finally, a CD reissue of Yoshi Wada's most important and most rare LP, Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, originally released in 1982 on the India Navigation label. Yoshi Wada is a Japanese sound installation artist and musician -- he moved to New York in the late 1960s, and became well-known as a Fluxus artist with links to La Monte Young, and has been involved in many performances and sound installations. However, he has released only two recordings, which are both hard to find. This CD contains two pieces: track 1 features a solo overtone voice (he studied with legendary Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath) recorded at the performance space Dry Pool (literally a dry pool that Wada slept in before this recording), with a deep underground echoing feeling. Track 2 displays Wada's trademark dense psychedelic drones using his "pipe horn," a home-made, bagpipe-like instrument. These wondrous sounds will take you to another, better world. 96khz/24bit digitally remastered complete full-length version (original LP edition was edited). Liner notes in English & Japanese.