City of Floating Sounds by Huang Ruo & the BBC Concert Orchestra

You're going to pique my interest immediately when you have a performance that combines mobile technology with art, music or theatre. I've been working in mobile technology for 25 years and I love to see and experience new ways of using existing technologies in an effective, interesting, useful or unusual way. So when I saw the following blurb, you can imagine I was interested to know more:

"Picture the scene: dozens of strangers meet at select locations around London and walk through the city together, playing different strands of Huang Ruo’s City of Floating Sounds out loud from a bespoke app,creating a full symphony as they go. Sound intriguing? Grab your phone and some comfy shoes and join a moving orchestra!"

I rallied a few friends, organised our tickets and we met on a gorgeous, sunny, warm evening at Victoria Embankment Gardens and joined the crowd to form this so-called moving orchestra. The weather could not have been better for it. I can't imagine it would be much fun in the rain. We set off in a somewhat higgledy piggledy fashion along the north bank. We weren't given any instructions although there were clearly visible Southbank reps on hand. A QR code with a link to download the app would have been useful. A reminder that the sound would be better if we stayed closer together (after all, each phone was playing a different sound) and that you needed to have your volume on full and your screen on low to conserve battery power would have been helpful. As we walked along the road to Embankment Gardens, it was hard to hear any music due to traffic noises, other pedestrians and lots of chatting amongst ourselves. Maybe that's the point that we just heard snippets at this point as we adjusted to the immersive nature of the experience. 

Once we hit the gardens, the experience was infinitely better. We had more critical mass in terms of people together and there was much less traffic noise to contend with. It was also really fun to walk past bemused people in the park wondering what it was that they were witnessing. Some paid no attention whatsoever and carried on with their conversations, phone calls and doom scrolling but others were really intrigued and were watching us quite intently. 

As we headed towards Hungerford Bridge, we lost critical mass again as people dispersed across the bridge at different speeds. This was a shame, but my group did get talking to passers by to explain what it was they were witnessing. At the culmination in front of the Southbank, the sound grew. There were large speakers on the terrace, and the sound grew as people arrived. However, many people turned the app off or put their phones away once they arrived at the Southbank which was a shame. Our phones were still playing different things, and if more people had kept their phones out playing the music, the experience would have been better. Again, signage, a QR code and encouraging those milling around the Southbank to join in might have been good.

After a short break, we headed into the concert itself, where we enjoyed a full, live orchestra performance of the piece by composer Huang Ruo. We also heard two shorter pieces by Advaith Jagannath and Arvo Part. The acoustics in the Festival Hall are fantastic so it's always a pleasure to experience a full orchestra in there. For the two shorter pieces, we were treated to fantastic percussion. I do love a bit of timpani. 

I find writing about music quite hard. Although I sing a bit, play piano (albeit extremely rustily) and can read music, I don't have the vocabulary or depth of knowledge to truly describe it to someone else. The main piece was meditative - multiple loops that fitted together but were ever so slightly discordant. Not dissimilar to many of our lived experiences being in a city. We can wonder at the majesty of the River Thames, admire the skill and beauty of the architecture and art around us, yet baulk at the sweaty tube, busy roads and grumpy people around us. It's every so slightly jarring, and I felt that in the music. The structure of the piece sounded like it was perhaps in rounds, with repetition of themes. It made me wonder if you could create a similar effect using a loop or sampler pedal. The overall effect of the music felt representative of a tidal river, perhaps, as it ebbs and flows or even the microcurrents that may exist within it. Ultimately, it was a meditation on city life.

The immersive element of the programme was my favourite part, and it would have been good if more could have been made of what was almost like a flashmob. Would I listen to Ruo's piece again? Possibly not but I would most definitely participate in another mobile phone moving orchestra.