124 MARK no 29 long section MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE 125
The
ArchITecT’s
PlAylIsT
After listening to deUs, gUrU
And others, KAtyA tylevich mAKes
A cAse for mUsic As frozen
ArchitectUre.
Text Katya Tylevich / Illustrations Mainstudio
126 MARK no 29 long section MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE 127
The Architect Alas, poor Goethe. embalmed as a cliché. ous settings – on an ‘oldies’ radio station,
his statement – ‘Architecture is frozen music’ through the open windows of a car stopped
Artist: dEUS – might as well be on a bumper sticker or a at a red light, over the speakers at a grocery
Album: Vantage Point (2008) T-shirt bearing che Guevara’s face. I promised store, or through the tricked-out gramophone
myself I wouldn’t use the quote to buttress the of a pedantic nerd-friend who owns amazing
This single by Antwerp-based rock band argument I’m about to make, but this promise collections of German industrial on vinyl.
dEUS opens with the question: ‘What is the proves harder to keep than ‘I will not eaves- In early 2010, musician David Byrne
architect doing?’ Answer: he’s ‘thinking’ by drop on my neighbours screaming at each (iconic founder of Talking heads and one-time
‘the riverside’, which is to say that he’s suf- other’. so, like a good hypocrite, here I go: I Rhode Island School of Design student) gave
fering from chemical imbalances, since the allude to Goethe’s words and make the claim an interesting talk titled ‘how Architecture
lyrics suggest our architect is looking to end that, actually, music can be frozen architecture. helped Music evolve’ at the TeD conference,
his unsatisfying architectural practice/exist- As tangible evidence, I tender seven songs wherein he contemplated whether musicians
ence by way of an eternal dunk in the waters written and performed in the past 40 years, in consciously write music for the architecture in
below. Great. Now we’re depressed. genres ranging from pop to metal to art-rock which they perform. In 1978, musician Brian
In our collective effort to self-medicate, we to whatever the hell simon and Garfunkel Eno (god of ambient) released an album
check out the band’s website, where we were in 1970. titled Ambient 1: Music for Airports, a brain-
learn that this song was inspired by our man Architecture is somehow fossilized in massage that eventually looped in New york
Buckminster Fuller. As architecture buffs and each of these tracks, whether in the lyrics or city’s tense laGuardia Airport as a sort of
Wikipedia scholars already know, Fuller did their symbolism, in the musicians’ deliveries, social experiment demonstrating that sound
at one point suffer from severe depression. side stories or instrumentations. My attempts is as integral to a space as are its windows and
But Fuller’s black cloud eventually dispersed, to chisel away at these ‘architecture fossils’ exits. And for decades now, metalheads have
and things improve for the fictional architect are those of a dilettante with respect to both used ‘architecture’ and ‘architect’ as go-to
in dEUS’s song as well. Quickly, his thoughts music theory and architecture theory (and metaphors for very dark, very very metal
of suicide give way to ‘egocide’. He no longer
contemplates ‘throw[ing] myself from the
pier’, opting instead to ‘go home and shut
up for a year’ to work on ‘a solution’. As he
broods and envisions ‘a perfect design / He this song brings the relAtionship
to the fore the
thinks that working on behalf of himself is a
crime’.
Fuller’s alleged ‘epiphany’ was the catalyst between mUsic And
that directed him to use his work for a greater
good. The lyrics of ‘The Architect’ move from
present to past tense as dEUS tries to de-
contrAdictions of ArchitectUre is
scribe what such an epiphany entails:
committing AltrUistic UneqUivocAlly vAlid,
Acts by wAy of
And so he drew himself a pentagon . . .
Thinking it through a geodesic dome
Step aside cause the man will take the enormoUs And fAr-
Nobel prize home
That’s nice.
creAtive worK reAching
But if dEUS’s architect has committed ‘ego-
cide’, how could he possibly have an internal
monologue (just before the final refrain) that palaeontology, if we’re going to list all my things, as indicated by Black sabbath’s ‘spiral
goes: deficiencies). That said, I do have a doctorate Architect’ – from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
in unfounded over-analysis and a proclivity (1973) – whose lyrics include ‘Spiral city archi-
Now if these aspirations bother you for dubious ‘architecture sightings’ in non- tect / I build, you pay’; as well as Megadeth’s
Well you are just you, you don’t have a architectural contexts. I once insisted that ‘Architecture of Aggression’, from Countdown
clue because a single by young Money (a popular To Extinction (1992). There’s also a Norwegian
I’m sticking to the plan I will see it hip-hop collective in the States) rhymed the ‘technical metal’ band called spiral Architect,
through word ‘bestest’ with ‘asbestos’ and made a dou- which cites ‘Fountainhead’ as one of its early
Let there be no confusion ble entendre of the words ‘bed rock’ (which showcase songs. To say nothing of albums like
Cause I’m the architect I heard only as ‘bedrock’), it was plausible Architecture and Morality (1981) by Orches-
that the song was about the building process, tral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Really, does that sound like an architect the designer’s responsibilities to human and surely all this means something – if only
bereft of all ego? Negative. Perhaps unin- environmental health, and the relationship that the relationship between music and
tentionally, this song brings to the fore the between architect and building inspector. architecture is unequivocally valid, enormous
contradictions of committing altruistic acts I know. I need a life. Instead, I have a run- and far-reaching. It’s also as elusive as hell, to
by way of creative work, which requires a ning ‘Architect’s Playlist’ on my iPod, which the point where David Byrne, Brian eno and
certain amount of ego. You know, I think I’m consists of songs that reference or reflect Ozzy have to sit around discussing the topic at
a little depressed again. At least it cheers me ‘architecture’ in one way or another. Why? length. Well, I want in. so please consider the
to know that Bucky Fuller’s voice is sampled Maybe to prove that architecture indeed following playlist a small, subjective attempt
in this song. resonates quite literally in a world outside to join the discussion. «
‘architecture’. To show that beyond sound-art
installations, galleries and design institutes,
architecture can be heard in more spontane-
128 MARK no 29 long section MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE 129
Haus der Lüge Thru These Architect’s
Artist: Einstürzende Neubauten
Eyes
Album: Haus der Lüge (1989) Artist: David Bowie
Album: Outside (1995)
Thirty-year-old Einstürzende Neubauten, Made in collaboration with Brian Eno, David
whose name roughly translates as ‘collapsing Bowie’s album Outside is a fin-de-siècle con-
new buildings’ (‘new buildings’ being post- cept work that takes place in the year 1999
WWII structures), has a three-album collec- and follows the fictional character Nathan
tion titled Strategien Gegen Architekturen Adler, a detective who investigates art as
(Strategies Against Architecture). That’s crime – or crime as art – or something. A clos-
right. Talk among yourselves. By and large, ing track, ‘Thru These Architect’s Eyes’, has
this Berlin-based band created its trademark been described as one of the album’s more
industrial sound with instruments knocked ‘accessible’ songs, both musically and lyri-
together from steel parts, barrels, saws and cally. ‘Accessible’ by Bowie standards, maybe,
hammers stolen from construction-site scra- but the song is still pretty, uh, poetic. Deep
pheaps. And one more dark, architectural fac- breath. We’ll get through this together.
toid: almost immediately after Einstürzende Although it is part of a comprehensive body
Neubauten formed in 1980, Berlin’s Congress of work, I suggest we look at the song with-
Hall roof caved in, killing a journalist. Cause out context and concentrate on one of its
of death: the building’s lack of structural in- more evocative statements, the refrain:
tegrity. Given the circumstances, a group with
a name like Einstürzende Neubauten struck a All the majesty of a city landscape
nerve – or, at the very least, suggested a rusty
metal bar had failed to do its job. In any case, god hAs All the soaring days of our lives
All the concrete dreams in my mind's eye
shot
the band’s cult status was born. All the joy I see through these
But independent of band trivia, many architect's eyes
Einstürzende Neubauten’s tracks befit an
architect’s playlist. Among them is ‘Haus der
Lüge’ (‘House of Lies’), which is essentially an
‘architectural tour’ of a house with wood-chip
himself, Call me gullible, but words like ‘majesty’,
‘soaring’, ‘dreams’ and ‘joy’ suggest to me a
sort of architectural rapture on the part of the
wallpaper, inhabited by the metaphorically
blind, deaf and lonely. The building’s con- leAving the narrator. As does the music itself – swelling
with Bowiemotion, the sound isn’t necessar-
top floor
struction is predictably shoddy (a thread run- ily positive, but it is necessarily big, animate
ning through EN’s works) – the engineering is and dramatic. What’s more, I see wordplay in
flawed, stored errors abound and one floor is ‘through these architect’s eyes’, as – despite
decidedly incomplete. Even instrumentally, it
sounds as though the musicians are kicking
at exposed pipes and crumbling walls as they
free to be the position of the apostrophe – it isn’t clear
whether the narrator is referring to his own
eyes (architect’s) or to the eyes of other
lead us upstairs.
Ah, we’ve reached the fourth floor, where we
find der Architekt, a man immersed in his
renovAted architects (plural) who designed the ‘city land-
scape’. Is architectural ‘joy’ radiating from the
buildings to their beholder (the narrator), or
plan for this building. A villain and a worka- is the narrator ogling a city through his own
holic, his ideas extend from Fundament to trained peepers?
Firmament: from earth to sky – or should I Without the context of the album as a whole,
say from hell to heaven? On the top floor, we can’t possibly say. But then again, the
we’re confronted by an old man with a gun in context of the album may do us little good.
his mouth, surrounded by dead angels. This song is rather impressionistic, and why
Apparently the old man is/was God, as re- shouldn’t a song about architecture be im-
vealed in the closing lines of the song, where pressionistic? If I were to attribute a specific
the song
we learn that God has shot himself, leaving feeling to the emotions this song rouses,
the top floor free to be renovated. Strange I would go with: the sense of delivering a
that the death of the Almighty is presented as drunken toast to urban planning. ‘Here’s to
the metaphoric equivalent of redoing an attic.
Is EN suggesting that the architect is second delivers A the majesty of a city landscape.’
drUnKen
only to God? After all, the former is physically
one storey below the latter, and when the
omnipresent ‘client’ offs himself, the designer
toAst to
gains instant freedom to redesign the top
floor. Is EN’s architect a victim of the system
or an accomplice to it? My, what universal
questions.
UrbAn
plAnning
130 MARK no 29 long section MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE 131
Respect The Architect Here I Dreamt I Was
Artist: Guru
an Architect
Album: Jazzmatazz Volume II: Artist: The Decemberists
The New Reality (1995) Album: Castaways and Cutouts (2002)
In this track, late rapper Guru uses ‘the Meh, fine, if I don’t put this popular song on
architect’ as an allegory for, well, himself. the architect’s playlist it will be seen either
Guru is the architect who is ‘Floor to ceiling as an oversight or as an unprovoked slight
/ constantly building’ the verses of this song, against the Decemberists – Portland, Oregon-
herewith ‘selecting the blueprints / To rid the based indie-gods to so many soft-spoken, eco-
game of nuisance’. Guru gains momentum friendly disciples (but I totally stereotype).
with each enunciated syllable, stretching the I have nothing against the Decemberists, or
limits of technical architectural symbolism against this song, but I do admit bias against
to maximum capacity. Guru holds his rhymes emotions, and this track is full of them – sad
to be ‘solid like cement’; he describes the ones, no less. So I recommend that the archi-
process of music-making as ‘Stackin concrete tect enjoy this one in private, at some low point
flows’, adding ‘look out below’. Say, did Guru in his or her life, preferably in the dying days
run into Einstürzende Neubauten at the con- of autumn, while sitting on the kitchen floor at
struction site where he got that architectural twilight, nursing a bad design, a broken heart
imagery? and a bottle of whisky or a cup of green tea (to
each his own).
The ‘I’ in this song dreams he’s many things, in-
this song cluding a soldier and a Spaniard, but it’s when
he dreams that he’s an architect (as the title
suggests) that things really begin to fall apart –
is the wAr all puns intended. I’ll quote at length:
cry of
And I am nothing of a builder
But here I dreamt I was an architect
And I built this balustrade
Architects To keep you home, to keep you safe
From the outside world
But the angles and the corners
engAged Even though my work is unparalleled
They never seemed to meet
in bitter
This structure fell about our feet
And we were free to go
brAwls The most objective reportage I could do vis-à-
vis the architect’s role in this tune is to simply
draw a frowny face here and leave it at that.
After all, the architect in this song, whether
taken as a literal or a figurative character, fails
Without losing control of his architectural to realize both his design and his relationship
parable, Guru lambastes other ‘architects’ – with the ‘you’ in question. He fails to make a
a.k.a. ‘Lame game plain Jane MCs’ – and says connection, not least between ‘the angles and
his ‘design’ is superior: the corners’ in his disaster of a ‘metaphorical
safe haven.’ He admits to being ‘nothing of a
Your concept’s mediocre, plus you’re way builder’ – and what of that balustrade that fails
too typical withcha corny delivery and to fulfil its function? Ugh! I mean, the thought
crazy wack voice of the ensuing literal or figurative lawsuit alone
Mad corny image, that’s why I give you is worthy of a :-(.
the jitters
In so many words, this song is the war cry
of architects engaged in nasty professional
competitions and bitter brawls. Also, every
architecture firm should consider playing the
i recommend thAt the Architect
refrain ‘So respect the architect, the architect
/ So respect the architect, as I begin to build’
over loudspeakers to begin each working
day, possibly while having everybody stand at
attention. Kind of like they do in totalitarian
countries.
enjoy this one in privAte, At some
low point in his or her life
132 MARK no 29 long section MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE 133
So Long, Frank Lloyd Architect
Wright Artist: Samael
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel Album: Solar Soul (2007)
Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
Swiss heavy-metal band Samael arrived on
Ah, classic melancholy from Paul Simon and the scene in the late ’80s, but it was only
Art Garfunkel. This song is truffle butter for three years ago that ‘Architect’ was added
the ears: smooth, a little salty, rich in parts. I to Solar Soul as a bonus track. Delivered in
mean, what can we call a song about Frank an unmistakably metal rasp, over symphonic
Lloyd Wright? Irony? A joke? Actually, it’s chills and driving guitars, the nearly indeci-
more of a dare, according to widely quoted pherable lyrics include the following (I think):
legend. Supposedly, Garfunkel (rumoured to
have studied architecture) challenged Simon Knowing how to work with volumes and
to write a song about FLW. The song is also lighting
commonly thought to be a ‘goodbye’ duet, as With force and resistance
the two geared up for a split. That’s touching, Rearranging the foundation
but let’s put context aside and concentrate on Transforming the construction
the lyrics. Take the refrain: Outside the frame another frame
Architects may come and And later:
Architects may go and Calculating the distances
Never change your point of view Estimating the length
When I run dry Predicting difficulties and providing
I stop awhile and think of you facilities
Yeah
On the surface alone, it appears to be a ‘hats To capture a concept in a few strokes
off’ to FLW, an architect definitely capable of To outline the project with a few words
changing another’s point of view – right? In the Materialization of thought
lyrics, the architect’s work process also parallels Pursuit of ideas
that of the musician. When the musician ‘runs Understanding of space
dry’, he finds inspiration in an architect who was, Unity of the whole
at times, a wellspring of original ideas. Continu-
ing that thought are two verses that the musi- Undoubtedly, this song contains some mean-
cian sings independently of each another: 1. ‘I'll ingful twist of phrase that comments on, oh, I
remember Frank Lloyd Wright / All of the nights don’t know, God or the lack thereof – I’m also
we'd harmonize till dawn’; and 2. ‘So long, Frank glimpsing images of existential bodies in mo-
Lloyd Wright / I can't believe your song is gone tion: ‘Meanwhile, they construct their own road
so soon / I barely learned the tune’. / A will, a way’. Maybe it has something to do
with that architect from The Matrix (a reference
whAt cAn
I tend to miss), but holy moly, the allusions to
‘designing the plan’ are so literal that I want to
interpret them as such. Essentially, these lyrics
we cAll A read like the poetry of a designer going postal,
or the margin notes of an M.Arch student in a
class called ‘Architecture, Society & Disorder’.
song AboUt And I mean that as a compliment.
frAnK lloyd the lyrics
wright? reAd liKe
irony? A the poetry
joKe? of A
This song strikes me as the equivalent of star-
ing at a poster of a music great, now defunct,
designer
and nostalgically lamenting that you’ll never
be able to hear him play live. Here we have a
musician looking up at a ‘poster’ of an architect
going
– the architect – and engaging in the same kind
of longing to interact with a legend. postAl