Guest Poster — James Houston

Having your mobile phone go off during a concert would usually be embarrassing, but at Dialtones it’s a necessity.
I really wish I could have been in the audience for this one – Dialtones was a concert where musicians onstage would create music by mass-dialling the audience’s mobile phones. The phones had been pre-registered and contained custom ringtones which had been specially created for the show.
This has been a huge influence for my own work, and already feels dated thanks to the rapid growth of the mobile phone industry;
I’m glad that the performance captured this moment in time, as I don’t think that .mp3 ringtone samples would have the same charm as these old-school polyphonic counterparts.
A true masterpiece – seeing the overlooked potential in an everyday object, and harnessing that potential as a means of expression.

See the performance
Find out more about how it was put together
Telesymphony website