Having turned his attention to art in recent years, Bill Drummond now owns the Curfew Tower in Cushendall, Co. Antrim, now used by young artists. The ‘Journal’ caught up with Drummond to find out more about this latest Derry project.

“I’m looking for three families to work with in Derry covering the themes of births, deaths and marriages,” he explained, “The first family would have to have had a baby born in recent times, and I would need 17 members of this family to contribute to ‘The 17’. The idea is that they’ll keep the note safe until that new baby has its own child. When that child’s child is born, then the same thing will happen again with 17 of the family singing a single note. The idea is that this will continue down the line for 17 generations. I like the idea of doing something now that will be experienced far into the future by great-great- great-grandchildren.”

He went on: “The second family should have recently celebrated a marriage and this time the numbers get a bit more complicated. I would need 17 males and 17 females from both sides of the family to take part. Finally, I would like to find 17 family and friends who have recently lost someone. Obviously not too recent a loss, as it would still be too raw and painful for them, but a family who are able to celebrate that loved one’s life. The whole thing will be a musical project involving these families, not a song as such, just a single musical note for one minute.”

Drummond will arrive in Derry next week to begin ground work and he is hopeful that enough Derry families will have signed up by then.

“With each of these three families and their friends I hope to be working with them in their local parish hall or pub back room or other convenient space near to where they live. There I will work with the family members, hopefully allay their fears about what they are doing, make it into a bit of an occasion and finally take them through a performance of the appropriate score.

“Lastly they will have their photograph taken,” Drummond went on. “This photo will be printed on a large scale, life-size format to be hung in the exhibition in Void.”

Drummond explained his inspiration behind this unusual venture: “I got an IPod and it was fantastic, it had all my most favourite tracks on it. But I noticed that I was randomly flicking through track after track. Then I saw that my 15-year-old daughter was doing the same, flicking through music and that made me want to put together something totally different. This project will produce something you will never hear on the radio on your IPod, it will exist in a different way. No melody, no rhythms, but it works,” he added.

In a previous project in Derby, Drummond gathered together groups of different professions, 17 teachers, 17 nurses, 17 lollipop ladies, etc. Each group recorded a single note, and then the 1,700 notes were put together to make a huge five-minute harmony.