Yoshi Wada

To make his drones roar, Yoshi Wada built long horns from metal plumbing, plus multi-piped reed contraptions powered by an air compressor. Those he named the Alligator and the Elephantine Crocodile, because of how they looked.

Born in Japan, he moved to New York, joined Fluxus in 1968 after meeting George Maciunas, then studied with La Monte Young and North Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath. His pieces were played very loud, so the overtones inside each sound rang out clearly, and he often performed them himself on Scottish highland bagpipe or voice, leaving room for improvisation.

He also devised mechanical and robotic installations, including a mid-1990s Pittsburgh work in which nautical emergency signals blasted until they were spent, creating an alarming, deafening wall of pressure. He died in 2021.