Musicians are no strangers to self- exploitation. They appropriate their own spaces and shared spaces, as well as robbing time (rubato) to sustain their passion and livelihood. The high-rise flat, like a well-tuned instrument, amplifies the music of its musical inhabitant. The improvisation of a flat into home studios, workshops, or practice rooms often robs the home while also compromising on a dedicated space requisite for the musical arts.

 

Bras Basah Complex’s customary stocking of instruments, music scores and recordings for music lovers and its locale in the heart of the arts district in Singapore makes it an obvious testbed for a new arrangement of living empathetic to music-making, where it shall be the stage for the revival of an ageing slab block. In this scheme, a part of the slab block is radically transformed into a tower for musicians. The tower becomes a beacon in the city and a social condenser for the musical arts. The music tower also produces modes of sociality which recall the original ambitions of high-rise living.

 

‘Can You Hear The Music?’ seeks to harmonise the practical needs of musicians with opportunities that the ageing high-rise housing with podium block presents, rewriting a duet between the complexities of everyday domesticity and the labour of music making.

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