First look of this reminded me of the old pipe organ installed back in the church at school. For a second I thought, the concept is so similar, but then, why is it so different? Reading on I gathered that this is a pump organ, which is attached to the Roundhouse through a consortium of colored tubes and transforms the entire building into a gigantic musical instrument of vicious manifestation.
We’ve seen all sorts of concert venues and we’ve seen them dressed in the vaguest of attires, every day with a new appearance to lure the appreciators of creative art and theater. This I say for the transition the Roundhouse, London, has undergone to become a musical attraction for all latent celebrators of concise music, David Byrne hats-off to you. Playing out of the gutted series of relays and switches, cables and Solenoids, the music generated would definitely send just anybody into nostalgia - as a single raw note on the organ seems to play out the secrets that the parts of the building may have hidden in its bosom for years together.
Who would dare to play the building so vivid, but instigation can bring out the most unobvious. ‘Please play’ inscribed on the floor should be good enough to get you going, even if your hands have never taken to an electric keyboard. Letting the bounds lose, lying off the burden of the treacherous life, let’s become kids again and the notes we played on the first keyboard that graced the pram our mother’s propelled, come let’s play them once again… listeners, mind the building could collapse (to end on the lighter note) :-).
Note: The installation has previously been attached to a factory in Stockholm in 2005 and a disused ferry hall in New York last year. Playing the Building was at Roundhouse, London, NW1 until Monday 31 August.
Via: BluePrintMagazine
