SASSAS proudly presents sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: Yoshi Wada and Tashi Wada, a free public concert featuring new work by acclaimed composer and Fluxus artist Yoshi Wada, and his son, composer Tashi Wada. Commissioned by SASSAS, and performed with the entire Los Angeles basin as a backdrop, the concert offers an exciting aural re-imagining of this iconic and historically complex hilltop.
Renowned composer, instrument builder, and Fluxus artist Yoshi Wada makes a long overdue appearance in Southern California with his son, composer Tashi Wada. Together, they lead an expansive quintet using a loose structure and a unique mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments that includes: sirens, alarm bells, audio generators, bagpipe and reed organ. Local performers John Allan and Megan Kenney, on bagpipe, and Corey Fogel ,on percussion, join them. In Yoshi Wada’s own words: “I search for deep and ringing sound that travels deep into my cells. Where does this sound exist?”
The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is unique in the greater Los Angeles area and California State Park system. A historically complex site, the Overlook offers 360 degree views of the Los Angeles Basin as it resides at the juncture of industry and parkland / preserve. Adjacent to the location of the 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam break and just north of an active oil field, the park was the site of a decade long development battle which was successful in fending off a 230-home development, but failed to stop the flat topping of the hill. Parts of the park have been regraded and, “in certain ways the land still looks as though it’s recovering from the earlier violence.” (Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times).
This concert is made possible in part by a Culver City Performing Arts Grant with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
About the Artists:
Yoshi Wada and Tashi Wada (Photo: Christina-Coene)
Yoshi Wada is a composer and artist associated with the downtown New York, experimental arts scene of the last fifty years. Wada was born in 1943 in Kyoto, Japan. He studied sculpture at the Kyoto University of Fine Arts, and then moved to New York in the late 1960s. Wada joined the Fluxus movement in 1968 after meeting its founder George Maciunas. In the early 1970s, Wada began building homemade musical instruments and writing compositions for them based on his personal research in timbre, resonance, and improvisation with the overtone series. He studied music composition with La Monte Young, North Indian singing with Pandit Pran Nath, and Scottish Bagpipe with James McIntosh and Nancy Crutcher. Wada’s performances and sound installations offer audiences the opportunity to consider what we hear, the way we hear it, and what hearing means. Wada has presented his work at The Kitchen, New York; New Music in America, New York; Whitney Biennial, New York; Akademie der Kunste, Berlin; Emily Harvey Gallery, New York; Biennale of Sydney, Australia; Festival d’Automne, Paris; PS1, New York; Venice Biennale; and AV Festival, Newcastle, UK. His recorded works are published by Japanese record labels EM Records and Omega Point.
Tashi Wada grew up in New York and lives in Los Angeles. His practice is informed by experimental music and art—particularly the work of artists affiliated with Fluxus, including his father Yoshi Wada—and interdisciplinary performance. Wada’s compositions use apparently simple structures and carefully calibrated tuning systems to generate rich and unanticipated perceptual effects. He presents his music often in collaboration with other artists including Charles Curtis and Stephan Mathieu, in addition to performing regularly with his father.
Additional Musicians:
John McLean Allan
John McLean Allan
After moving from Scotland to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, John has been lucky enough to be able to be a professional musician for over 16 years. John has played with various performers such as Korn, The Chieftains, Michael Flattley, Charlotte Church, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and The Tonight Show Band. He has also appeared or played in numerous movies, TV shows and stage comedies including: Oscar-winning Best Picture Million Dollar Baby, Battleship, Austin Powers 2, Primary Colors, the Tonight Show, The West Wing, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Providence, and What About Dick? among many others. John has released four CDs and his music has been heard on over 100 radio stations all over the world.
Corey Fogel
Corey Fogel is a drummer and performance artist currently living in Los Angeles, CA. Corey performs and composes in many rock, jazz, noise, folk, and chamber music capacities. His solo work as a composer and performance artist is based around spontaneous encounters with sounds, objects, personalities, textiles, foods, spanning video, dance, and installation. In addition to touring and recording nationally and abroad, Corey has been a member of groups: Julia Holter, Missincinatti, The Mae Shi, Gowns, Cryptacize, Barbez, Monstro, The Curtains, Learning Music, Nowcloud, Dominique Leone, 18 Squared. Corey has presented his own work with Machine Project, LACMA, Human Resources, The Wulf, The Hammer Museum, and REDCAT. Corey was recently awarded The California Community Foundation 2014 Fellowship in Visual Arts. http://knitdrums.tumblr.com
Megan Kenney
