Playing the Building

Musicians, especially percussionists, have been known to play a variety of instruments both traditional and non-traditional in nature. Drummers are known for beating on anything that won't hit back including the wall of a building; but never before has a building been used AS the instrument.

Hall of Fame Grammy Award winning guitarist and front man for the Talking Heads David Byrne has created Play a Building by using a pipe organ and coloured wires that lead to the ceiling. Byrne's latest installment, his third, is located in the Roundhouse in London. the structure originally was a shed for railroad engines and later became a theatre and concert hall.

Visitors can't play Bach and that piano lesson your parents forced on you as a child will be of no help, but striking the keys will produce a variety of clangs, hums, and whistles.

Byrne has previously played a paint factory in Stockholm and the Battery Maritime Building in New York City.