Water Music

Modern London is such a large and sprawling city that it’s easy to forget it was once just a couple of small settlements flanking a mighty river. The megacity now dwarfs the Thames, making it feel like just one of many interesting geographical features as opposed to the sole reason for the capital’s existence.

So vital was the river to London’s earliest inhabitants that it was honoured with its own deity, Old Father Thames, a bearded demigod with long, flowing locks, worshipped and feared since the iron age. Artefacts recovered from the bed of the Thames suggest that his worshippers cast precious objects and works of art into the waves to supplicate their watery lord, who could be a bit temperamental in the days before the Barrier was installed.

These days, our respect for the Thames may be somewhat less than it was a thousand years ago, but artists like Felix Taylor are still honouring the Old Father (although without littering the riverbed quite so much). The south London-based composer works with music, field recordings, collage and video to make works that explore place, identity and memory, and his latest commission brings these skills together to pay homage to the river itself.

Float! is the culmination of several months spent travelling aboard Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ services, drinking in the sights and sounds of the modern waterway and transforming them into music. The resulting composition is alive with movement; its sounds and melodies layered into a rich tapestry that evoke specific landmarks and locations along the route.

“For instance, the first motif heard was written with Olivers Wharf in mind,” says Felix. “The third movement was created after spotting the strange, life-sized yellow figure of a man that faces the river from someone’s garden near Canary Wharf, and the latter half of that same movement features a solo from my brother Oscar Taylor, where he plays clarinet over field recordings taken from a beach in Surrey Quays. The piece is absolutely full of direct references but they’re somewhat hidden and, overall, the piece is meant to just evoke the same feelings that all of these things give me.”

Felix is just one of many composers to have immortalised Thames in their music; George Frederic Handel wrote Water Music in honour of the river at the request of King George I, and in their proggiest days, even Genesis made reference to Old Father Thames in Dancing With the Moonlit Knight. Felix’s offering is rather more accessible than Peter Gabriel’s, less stately and baroque than Handel’s, and definitely more calming to play through earphones as the Clipper cruises its way across the water.

“I’m telling stories of London and the river in a way that feels new and exciting to me” says Felix. “It’s been amazing to experience the calmness of the river while the tall, imposing city is either side of me. You feel totally detached from London, but also at the centre of it all at the same time.

That said, Felix still nods to the unpredictable nature of the waterway and its moody river god in the music. “I hope Londoners get the sense of adventure that I’ve tried to put in the music,” he says. “The feeling that you get riding the boat. I also hope it communicates the feelings of both calmness and danger that you get from the river; the way that it can be such an inviting presence, but also an immensely powerful one.”

Float! launched as part of Totally Thames 2021, co-commissioned by Uber Boat by Thames Clippers and Thames Festival Trust. It was created to be best enjoyed while aboard the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ service which sails to and from North Greenwich Pier for the Greenwich Peninsula. Look out for the QR code on board their boats, simply scan and enjoy the track.

This project was developed and produced by international, site-specific sound / arts practice MSCTY, and the work forms part of a wider musical journey, MSCTY x Thames, a collaborative project with Team London Bridge and the Royal Docks Team.