Went to see David Byrne’s playing the building last week at the Roundhouse. This is the third location for this installation which has previously been installed in sweden and new york. I like the idea which scopes out the interior of the building and sees what sounds can be made using anything housed within the walls. Pipes, structural columns and beams are hooked up to tapping hammers, vibrating motors and blown air. Wires attached to an old organ provide the interface for users to trigger these sounds so playing the keyboard now becomes playing the building.

Nice but when the space is filled with loads of visitors who decided to bring along their own instruments to jam along with the building, it became impossible to hear the effect of the keyboard. Eventually the other musicians figured that out too and later stopped. phew! I queued up and got my two minutes to play. Believed I produced something musical out of it before my time was up… hmm maybe. Ideal situation for this installation would be in a desolate warehouse which you stumbled across and no one else was there … or if they were, they were quiet and listened to my musical creation. ha. Defintitly would prefer more time to play the keyboard as some notes reacted in different ways and reckon there must have been many more possible sounds that I didn’t get a chance to explore… oh well. next time.