Film Premiere - Instruments in the Architecture: Building the Pianodrome

Pianos are being thrown away at a tremendous rate – hauled away, set on fire and their valuable heavy metal sold for scrap. Tim, Leon and their team of inspired artists, musicians and volunteers have reclaimed these unloved instruments to build the world’s first 100-seater amphitheatre made entirely from up-cycled pianos.

The project is the subject of a new short film by Melt the Fly – Balancing the artistic integrity of Tim’s vision with Leon’s practicality and realism tests the strength of their relationship as they race to complete the Pianodrome for its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Brilliantly engaging, at times emotional and tumultuous, condensing Tim and Leon’s long journey down to just under a 14-minute documentary is quite an incredible feat in itself. On a deeper level, you can’t help but question how we have not only become a throw-away society but are also becoming more isolated as reflected in the way that most of us now consume music.

Produced and Directed by Will Hewitt and Austen McCowan (Melt the Fly):

“Melt the Fly’s first contact with the Pianodrome was in creating a crowdfunding campaign video to generate the first wave of finance for the project. As well as raising money from backers like Brian Eno, the success of this campaign helped galvanise a real sense of energy, purpose and passion on all sides and inspired the continuation of the film into the documentary, Instruments in the Architecture.

“All playable pianos are re-homed by Pianodrome and only the ones beyond repair are up-cycled and reincarnated as weird and wonderful creations. Many pianos were manhandled into strange situations in the making of this film – one was even completely deconstructed and suspended from the ceiling – and many hours were spent paying them attention and respect through the medium of time-lapse photography. Pianos are beautiful objects, and to have access to a warehouse full of them was a luxury in that sense. However, hauling them around to iconic Leith locations like the Banana Flats, heaving them down beaches and even tracking down a genuinely abandoned one top of a hill in the Fife countryside was less luxurious. This film aims to tell the story of community and sustainable craftsmanship that was Building the Pianodrome.

“It was wonderful to see the Piandrome become a reality and play host to musicians and acts like S!nk, Kate Young, Amanda Palmer, Will Pickvance, Tinderbox Orchestra, Lizabett Russo and Alabaster dePlume. The Pianodrome will be installed at The Pitt in Leith for the duration of Edinburgh Fringe this year, we hope to see you there!”