London’s first Waterloo Bridge opened in 1817: grey Cornish granite with handsome Doric columns lining the thoroughfare for good measure. When its foundations became too shaky during the second world war, a specialist construction workforce, predominantly made up of women, erected the new reinforced concrete span and it’s this social history that inspired composer/sound artist Claudia Molitor to “open up a space for the listener to reconnect with this beautiful architectural structure”. The Singing Bridge is musical psychogeography more than anything and is probably best experienced the way it was intended – on a headset in situ overlooking the bridge as part of this month’s Totally Thames festival. But it’s also proving gently evocative in my kitchen, with its sensitively layered watery location recordings, traffic noises and wonky, finespun, industrial-ish prepared piano sounds by Molitor, plus contributions from poet SJ Fowler, folk band Stick in the Wheel and drum/synth duo AK/DK.
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