This was intended to be a low budget project but it was set in an exquisite space. To save transport costs I suggested using locally available pedestals, as in Tabakalera, but with some of the instruments and their elegant comtrol systems, designed by Manfred Fox, lying on the floor and protected by kerbs. The kerbs would be cheap but chic 9cm. black-anodised aluminium air hose, containing ballast to keep them flat on the floor and would play a game with the black cast-iron stanchions in the gallery.

It was inspired by a sketch by Tom Johnson, in our discussions at the start of the project.

However, the gallery did not approve and wanted a new set of brown MDF pedestals in the original style to be made in Granada and then disposed of. Since this would be an ecological sin, we agreed that the original pedestals should be transported from Berlin together with the instruments, assembled there and, after the exhibition, taken apart and returned to Berlin.

I met the curator Eduard Escoffet - poet, sound artist and friend of Tom Johnson - and within 10 minutes we had agreed on a layout. The side between the two doors is left completely clear as a circulation space and the pedestals were distributed around the other three walls together with framed diagrams and traced murals.

There was one difficulty: the latest brand of "removable" tesa adhesive tape was not as strong as the version I had been using before. We could have used a "strong" tape that I also had with me but that is diffficult to take apart.
Fortunately, the artist Domingo Zorrilla immediately solved the problem by improvising wood blocks screwed to the inside corners of the pedestals. These worked perfectly!

The instruments were bought by Tom Johnson in Paris and sent to me in Berlin.

Each group of instruments looked different but I wanted the installation as a whole to look unified. This was done by making all the holders for the instruments and beaters from the same material and with standardised dimensions. I ordered eight strips of 20 mm black MDF, cut to size for me by my wood shop: each strip 10cm wide and 2 metres long.

I cut the 2 meter MDF strips to size with a fine-bladed Japanese saw, using a specially-made guide locked onto the strip to keep the saw blade dead straight. (This could easily have been done on my table saw but I didn't fancy the black MDF sawdust.)

The wood blocks rest on soft rubber strips and are held in place by soft rubber straps. The flexible hinges for the drumsticks were made of 10cm wide strips of 20 mm sorbo rubber; the same dimensions and colour as the black MDF - but bendy! Holes were cut in the sorbo rubber with a DIY 10mm. tubular drill to take the shafts of the drumsticks. The drum sticks are powered by a bolt fired upwards from a solenoid. These rugged solenoids are spare parts, ordered from a pin-ball machine supplier. The connections to the solenoids are protected by black vacuum-formed plastic covers.

Each group of instruments has its own independent Raspberry Pi controller. The data for each group was extracted from the MIDI files generated by Tom's Finale score and stored on an SD card. Each controller, with its SD card-holder, its power supplies, chic twist-lock output sockets, on/off switch and mains cable connection is housed in a handsome aluminium case, and placed inside one of the MDF pedestals. The pedestals have open backs and stand 10 cm from the wall. Each controller is connected to the instruments in its group by black heavy-gauge rubber cables - a type that naturally lies flat on the floor. The cables run along the walls of the gallery. However, the six Deep Rhythms instruments all sit on a single low platform; their controller and their connecting cables are underneath the platform.