2019 Musicity London Architecture, British Building Sounds, Acoustic Design, UK Artists Technology
Musicity London Architecture
Music, architecture and technology to build a living archive of the sounds of cities across the world
21 May 2019
Musicity x Low Line London Architecture
Musicity x Low Line is launching as part of London Festival of Architecture in June 2019:
9 Jul + 22 Jun 2018
Musicity London Event
Musicity London Event in July 2018
A special Musicity London launch event to mark the introduction of seven new songs to seven buildings, including Southwark Cathedral, the Hopton’s Almshouses, Tate Switch House and Faraday Memorial.
31 + 30 May 2018
Musicity London
Musicity London 2018
From this Sat, 2 June, there’ll be seven new songs to be found at seven buildings in London, including Southwark Cathedral, the Hopton’s Almshouses, Tate Switch House and Faraday Memorial.
Each new track has been created by the likes of Hatis Noit, The Memory Band and Shamus Dark about the specific buildings.
And the only way you can hear them is by going to each building with your smartphone and streaming and downloading them (free) while you see the building that inspired them.
The free, not-for-profit project, is called Musicity.
Sooski – Siobhan Davies Studios, St George’s Road – at Musicity London 2018:
Musicity London
MUSICITY LONDON – ARTISTS COMBINE TO CREATE SOUNDTRACK FOR THE CITY
● Seven new tracks waiting to be found at London landmarks and historic venues ● Southwark Cathedral, Faraday Memorial, Tate Switch House and Hopton’s Almshouses among buildings inspiring new music
● Free Musicity app provides a new way of seeing and hearing the city
● Artists including Hatis Noit, The Memory Band, Shamus Dark, Sooski, Langham Research Centre and Lossy x Salmon Centre join Nabihah Iqbal, Stick in the Wheel, Sean O’Hagan, Moses Boyd and many more
● Musicity project now in London, Seoul – and later this year in Tokyo, Coventry,
Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzen ● Partnership with InLinkUK provides free public ultrafast Wi-Fi along parts of the route
Langham Research Centre – The Switch House extension to the Tate Modern building at Bankside:
From Saturday 2 June 2018, an assortment of London buildings will be given their own new soundtrack, as part of a project which invites musicians and recording artists to compose tracks for buildings in cities around the world. In the latest instalment of the Musicity project, seven artists have created seven new songs or pieces of music especially for seven London buildings.
Each composition can be streamed and downloaded free of charge but only by visiting each building with a smartphone. Once there, people can listen to the new music on musicityglobal.com while taking in the architecture and neighbourhood that inspired it.
The chosen buildings include twenty 18th century almshouses built for the ‘poor decayed men’ of Southwark, the White Cube Bermondsey gallery, the box-shaped tribute to pioneering scientist Michael Faraday that sits at the centre of Elephant and Castle gyratory system and Southwark Cathedral, parts of which date back to the 13th century. Each track is geo-tagged so that they become available to hear when a person – and their smartphone – reaches each building.
Lossy – Southwark Cathedral building:
Participating artists include The Memory Band, led by producer and bassist Stephen Cracknell and combining digital machinery and acoustic instruments to make ‘traditional music from the future’; Shamus Dark, who performs songs from the ‘American Songbook’ using contemporary arrangements and digital technology; Langham Research Centre, whose sound emerges from classic radiophonic instruments, vintage electronics, tape recorders and sine-tone oscillators; Lossy, aka composer, prouder and multi-instrumentalist Sam Sharp working with talented singers and musicians from the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey; Hatis Noit, hailing from northern Japan, self-taught and inspired by everything from Gagaku (Japanese classical music) and operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, to avant-garde and pop vocalists; singer-songwriter, actor, dancer and performance artist, Chisara Agor, who is influenced by jazz, folk, storytelling and electronic sounds; and music producer and interior architect, Sooski, who pursues both professions in parallel and with equal passion.
Chisara Agor – Faraday Memorial:
Artists and their buildings:
The Memory Band – Flat Iron Square, 68 Union Street, SE1 1TD
Shamus Dark – Hopton’s Almshouses, Hopton Street, SE1 9JJ
Langham Research Centre – Tate Switch House (aka Blavatnik Building), Hopton Street, SE1 9TG
Lossy – Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, SE1 9DA
Hatis Noit – White Cube, Bermondsey Street, SE1 3TQ
Chisara Agor – Faraday Memorial, SE1 6TG
Sooski – Siobhan Davies Studios, St George’s Road, SE1 6ER
Musicity has been created by BBC broadcaster, DJ and music curator, Nick Luscombe, who said, “Musicity is proof of the power of architecture and a building’s atmosphere to inspire all sorts of artists. The project makes it possible to experience architecture-inspired music and sound art in the very place that sparked its creation.
This is not a commercial venture; we want to support and promote new music, but also to transform the experience of listening to it. In an age when so much music is available in an instant, we want to bring back the joy of seeking it out. We want our audience to venture out, to be active, not passive, consumers of contemporary music, to explore cities and to experience the urban environment in new and unexpected ways, through music that is entirely connected to it.”
Matt Bird, General Manager, InLinkUK said: “Connectivity is central to creating well used and vibrant public spaces. We’re excited to provide our free Wi-Fi to help people connect to the architecture that surrounds them and with the music that inspires them. “
Hatis Noit – White Cube, Bermondsey Street:
photo by Özge Cöne
The introduction of the seven new works means that there is now a total of 14 Musicity songs waiting to be collected at all sorts of buildings across Southwark, one of the oldest parts of the capital and an area in the midst of dramatic architectural transformation. These include Peckham Library, The Shard, Canada Water Bus Station and Borough Market. And the project is not limited to London; so far, 43 tracks have been created across 7 cities, including, Oslo, Tokyo and Singapore.
As part of the commissioning process, Musicity encourages all musicians to gain an understanding of the fabric of each space, by working with architect and sound artist Paul Bavister from architectural firm Flanagan Lawrence. Paul has visited the sites with the musicians, taking acoustic data (e.g. sound reverberation and clarity) from each building. This information helps to set the written music within the sonic constraints of the site itself, resulting in truly site-specific works.
As well as making links with artists, an important part of Musicity is to forge relationships with urban planners, architects, landowners and developers; and to encourage them to involve the public in their projects, building a connection with the arts that is much more than cursory. Musicity has also provided solutions to some of the challenges faced by developers. For example, in Tokyo, Musicity commissioned a new track by Ryuichi Sakamoto at Isetan department store, which drew customers in via a specific doorway that was being ignored.
To listen and download tracks and for more information please visit musicityglobal.com
Musicity London images / information received May 2018
Previously on e-architect:
4 Aug 2017
Musicity London Architecture 2017
Musicity London Architecture
MUSICITY – BRINGING MUSIC TO THE CITY, ONE BUILDING AT A TIME
• Musicity London: 8-10 September 2017.
• Music inspired by the buildings of London – from Borough Market to the Finnish Church,
Peckham Library to the Shard. Collect the set!
• Free events, including live music, talks, discussions and a photographic tour
• Musicity combines music, architecture and technology to build a living archive of the sounds of cities across the world
• Artists include Sean O’Hagan, Moses Boyd (Binker and Moses), William Doyle (formerly East
India Youth), Throwing Shade, Stick in the Wheel, Hejira, patten
4 August 2017 – A new project which brings the buildings of cities across the world to musical life, will stage a weekend celebration of the architecture of London this September. Musicity invites musicians to choose a building and then create new songs and compositions inspired by the design, history or their personal connections to that place. The new track is then available for free streaming or download via the new, free Musicity app on any smartphone, but only at that particular location, so using the ubiquitous technology used by millions to consume songs to make a deeper connection with the music.
Created by BBC broadcaster, DJ and music curator, Nick Luscombe, Musicity is a new kind of travel guide to a city, exploring the ways in which cities influence the culture that emerges from within them and the melodies and stories inspired by our personal experiences of architecture. The plan is to build soundtracks of cities – with compilations of the tracks eventually being released as a physical box set.
Running from 8-10 September, the Musicity London event will focus on Southwark, one of the oldest parts of the capital and an area in the midst of dramatic architectural transformation. Contemporary architecture rubs alongside old Thames-side pubs and warehouses in a borough that takes in Borough, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Walworth, Peckham, Camberwell, Peckham Rye, Nunhead and Dulwich. Musicians with strong connections to the area are making music to be collected by exploring the streets with the Musicity app; and the buildings themselves will become venues for live performances and discussions.
Each Southwark location has been chosen and tracks created. Artists and their buildings of choice:
Sean O’Hagan – Peckham Library; Moses Boyd – Canada Water Bus Station;
Throwing Shade – Borough Market; Stick in the Wheel – Finnish Church Rotherhithe;
Hejira – Time and Talents, Bermondsey Street (Arts and Crafts former hostel);
William Doyle – The Shard; patten – Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre.
Among the 17 London compositions already completed are pieces inspired by Battersea Power Station, the BT Tower, Blackfriars Bridge and the Old Royal Naval College and covering all sorts of styles: pop, folk, electronic, ambient, modern classical and spoken word, to name a few. The project is not limited to London; so far, 43 tracks have been created across 7 cities, including, Oslo, Tokyo and Singapore.
Among the artists already involved are Ghostpoet, Jon Hopkins, Ikonika, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Laura J. Martin and Mara Carlyle. Artist Rough Fields has contributed a piece called ‘Our Streets’, inspired by the history of public protest around Artillery Lane at Spitalfields; Kelpe chose George Gilbert Scott’s Victorian Gothic Midland Grand Hotel and St Pancras station; The Simonsound decided to pick a building that is long gone, the near-mythical Skylon, built for the 1951 Festival of Britain but removed a year later.
A unique aspect of the commissioning process is that Musicity encourages all musicians to gain an understanding of the fabric of each space, by working with architect and sound artist Paul Bavister from architectural firm Flanagan Lawrence. Paul has visited the sites with the musicians, taking acoustic data (e.g. sound reverberation and clarity) from each building. This information helps to set the written music within the sonic constraints of the site itself, resulting in truly site-specific works.
As well as making links with artists (and audiences for their work), an important part of Musicity is to forge relationships with urban planners, architects, landowners and developers; and to encourage them to involve the public in their projects, building a connection with the arts that is much more than cursory. Musicity has also provided solutions to some of the challenges faced by developers. For example, in Tokyo, Musicity commissioned a new track by Ryuichi Sakamoto at Isetan department store, which drew customers in via a specific doorway that was being ignored.
As presenter of BBC Radio 3’s highly-acclaimed Late Junction and a champion of new music, Nick Luscombe created Musicity to inspire artists by challenging them to respond to new subjects and to bring buildings and public spaces to life in an innovative way.
Nick Luscombe said, “I’m sure that I’m not alone in having strong personal associations between buildings and certain pieces of music. For example, Smeaton’s Tower on Plymouth Hoe immediately brings to mind listening to ‘Fantastic Day’ by Haircut One Hundred on a summer afternoon in the 1980s. In a slightly different way, ‘Court and Spark’ by Joni Mitchell takes me straight to Tokyo’s monorail, where I listened to it on my iPod. I can’t be the only one!
We’re inviting people to seek out all sorts of buildings, celebrated and obscure, in order to discover and collect the music attached to it. So, Musicity uses the technology of the smartphone to make new music available but preserves the excitement of discovering something new. Composers and artists have long responded to the architecture of a city but, perhaps, in recent years, most music to be heard in a new building tends to be muzak. Musicity is definitely not about lift music! I hope we’ll be inspiring people to discover music that they don’t know they’re looking for. It will be like seeing a painting by Turner and being transported to the actual spot on which he was standing when he painted it.”
Artist Throwing Shade said, “I’m excited by the challenge of composing a piece of music around a particular place in London because it’s something I’ve never done before. I want to find out as much as I can about the relationship between sound, space and structure, and focus it into the inspiration for my music. As a born and bred Londoner, I feel that this project will help bring my creative process and music closer to my city.”
Sean O’Hagan said, “It’s impossible not to react to the physical environment within which we thrive. These structures are as much part of our character and culture as politics, ideas, books, films, art or events. Buildings drive my creative process. So much art is inward looking. Writing for or with a structure remains a rewarding, outward experience.”
Musicity London Architecture Visitor Information
Musicity London Dates: 8-10 September 2017
Full information and event details: musicityglobal.com
Event details and tickets: www.musicityglobal.com/events/
Events: Friday 8 September, 6-9pm: Talks and Playback at Deli Felice, 40 Albion St, London SE16 7JQ
Architectural and musical talks and discussions, plus playback of Musicity tracks. Speakers include Ian Carter and Nicole Kearey (both Stick in the Wheel), Ian Rawes (London Sound Survey), Elizabeth Kane (writer), Paul Bavister (architect), Sian Hutchings (artist).
Sunday 10 September, 10.30am. Rotherhithe Photographic Walk. Start and finish point: Canada Water Station. Three-hour walk, led by photographer and film-maker Anthony Palmer, exploring the changed industrial landscape and buildings of Rotherhithe from the conservation area around Rotherhithe Village to the large expanse of Water at Greenland Dock.
Sunday 10 September, 5-8pm: Talks and Playback at The Peckham Pelican, 92 Peckham Road, London SE15. Panel discussions, talks, readings and Musicity tracks playback featuring Sean O’Hagan (The High Llamas), Throwing Shade (musician/producer), Benedict O’Looney (architect), Melodie Leung (architect), Chisara Agor (musician), Simon Vincent (musician), Elizabeth Kane, Ian Rawes (London Sound Survey).
Updated 7 Jun + 26 May 2017
Musicity London Architecture Events in 2017
Musicity London Architecture in 2017
In light of the events of Saturday evening at Borough Market and the London Bridge area, and after discussion with Southwark Council, we have decided to postpone the whole of the planned Musicity event. Borough Market is right at the heart of the project in many ways and we all think it is wise to hold off for a while. The Musicity London event will take place from 8-10 September now, with press day and launch event on 7th Sept. We will return with revised details soon. Many apologies for any inconvenience.
MUSICITY – BRINGING MUSIC TO THE CITY, ONE BUILDING AT A TIME
• Musicity London: 23-25 June. Music inspired by the buildings of London – from Borough Market to the Finnish Church, Peckham Library to the Shard. Collect the set!
Musicity media launch event: 6.30-9pm on Thursday 22 June 2017 at 85 Southwark Studios Gallery, Allies and Morrison. Featuring talks, live music from Hejira & playback of all seven new Musicity tracks.
A new project which brings the buildings of cities across the world to musical life, will stage a weekend celebration of the architecture of London this June. Musicity invites musicians to choose a building and then create new songs and compositions inspired by the design, history or their personal connections to that place. The new track is then available for free streaming or download via the new, free Musicity app on any smartphone, but only at that particular location, so using the ubiquitous technology used by millions to consume songs to make a deeper connection with the music.
photo : Tony Palmer
Running from 23-25 June, the Musicity London event will focus on Southwark, one of the oldest parts of the capital and an area in the midst of dramatic architectural transformation. Contemporary architecture rubs alongside old Thames-side pubs and warehouses in a borough that takes in Borough, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Walworth, Peckham, Camberwell, Peckham Rye, Nunhead and Dulwich. Musicians with strong connections to the area are making music to be collected by exploring the streets with the Musicity app; and the buildings themselves will become venues for live performances and discussions. Musicity London is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2017.
Each Southwark location has been chosen and tracks are being created now. Confirmed artists and their buildings of choice: Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas – Peckham Library; drummer, composer and producer, Moses Boyd – Canada Water Bus Station; DJ and producer, Throwing Shade – Borough Market; folk-punk artists, Stick in the Wheel – Finnish Church Rotherhithe; soul-funk trio Hejira – the arts and crafts former hostel, Time and Talents, Bermondsey Street; electronic musician William Doyle (formerly known as Mercury-nominated East India Youth) – The Shard; and electronic duo patten – Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Musicity London Architecture Dates: 23-25 June 2017. Full details of venues and event times at musicityglobal.com
Friday 23rd June, 7-10pm: Deli Felice – Italian delicatessen and sandwich bar within walking distance of Southwark Park. Event will feature talks and performance by Stick in the Wheel. Saturday 24th June: Grand tours of Musicity locations and evening of music and talks (location tbc). Saturday 24th June: Talks and live music by Hejira (location tbc) Saturday 24th June, 8.30pm: The Yellow House, Canada Water. Free, live performance by Stick in the Wheel. Sunday 25th June, 7-9pm: Tours of Musicity locations (times tbc) Sunday 25th June, 7-9pm: The Peckham Pelican. Tours, talks and playback of all 7 new Musicity tracks.
Musicity London Architecture information received May 2017
11 June 2020
Musicity at Home 2020
Free online festival on Sunday 21 June 2020:
A Day Of Live Music Celebrating Architecture, Neighbourhoods And Stamping Grounds – Streaming Live
Location: London, England, UK
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