Event Page- Randomatones - London Museum of Water and Steam

Randomatones

Temporary Exhibition in the Electric House

Randomatones are a sound art project by software developer and musician Andrew Booker. In the first of two of his installations at the London Museum of Water & Steam, six loudspeakers of different shapes and sizes hang in the Electric Room. Most of the machines in this room once used electromagnetism to convert between electricity and rotational movement. This installation uses electromagnetism to create sound. Amongst large machines that once pumped water continuously, its ensemble of loudspeakers play a continuous slow-moving ethereal musical piece that brings to life the natural acoustic of the room, with its tiling and hard surfaces. As music, the sound is strangely captivating. Endlessly nonrepeating, and yet recognisably consistent with itself from one moment to another, it is a little like watching waves on the gusty surface of the nearby River Thames.

Andrew Booker is a professional software developer and busy amateur musician. For more than two decades he has appeared as a drummer with prog/art rock acts such as No-man, Tim Bowness, Sanguine Hum, Rain and Beatrix Players. More recently he has nurtured a parallel interest in ambient music. From 2007-2010 he ran Improvizone, a semi-regular London-based evening of ambient electronic chillout music. As a takeaway from that experience, Andrew put together a software-based randomising sample player that required no free hands to operate. He later developed this idea into the Randomatones. The project has been his main artistic activity since 2020, though he continues to play drums for UK chamber/prog band Beatrix Players, and plays percussion and sings with Runaway Jukebox, a NE London based covers band.