House of Art

In the House of Art there stood a piano without hammers. Someone had removed them and put them down a little way off, together with a broken double bass and an old Vermona-brand synthesizer. The piano was well protected by the surrounding furniture and moreover it stood in one of the few dry rooms in Pripyat. I wondered how it might have played if it had not been vandalised. But then I realized that strings can have their own charm. So this piece is composed only from recordings of the strings.

“House of Art”closes with a coda that echoes the paradox of music in a radioactive environment. The distinctive clicking sound of a Geiger counter indicates the level of radiation and, together with our footsteps and outdoor sounds, it creates a quiet coda representing our departure from this place. After returning home, I realized that this is a natural, found analogue of John Cage’s “prepared pianos”.