HAVE you seen the piano sitting in Harwich Harbour? That’s the work of American-based sound installation artist Annea Lockwood.

Her work, Piano Transplant, will see the piano chained to the beach where it will be played by passers-by as well as the sea as the waves crash over it.

The installation is part of Harwich Festival of the Arts which launched on Thursday, June 27.

The New Zealand composer is world famous for her recordings of naturally found sounds, particularly of water.

Annea had the idea for this work back in the Eighties, but didn’t produce it until 2005.

She explains: “In 1982 I was invited to contribute a piece to an exhibition in Rimini, one focus of which was on imaginary sounds.

“The image of a concert grand tethered to a ship’s anchor on a beach came to mind. So I wrote up the instructions for it and left it at that, thinking no-one would ever give me a concert grand.” But they did.

“In 2005 the Tura New Music organisation in Perth, Australia, invited me over to their biannual festival,” she continues, “and I suggested realising this Piano Transplant.

“Ross Bolleter, whose special forte is performing and composing with ruined pianos found me a small grand. We set it up on a beach near Fremantle and people loved it.

“A group of backpackers carted it off to their hostel to save it, then had to return it to us. “It lasted about four days, then rough weather dismantled it, tearing off legs and the lid, but sound could still be found in the sandy, seaweed-filled body. This will be the second presentation of this Transplant.

“I will be fascinated to watch both the way people enjoy the instrument – having a ruined piano to play does tend to remove inhibitions about technique – and how the North Sea tackles it, how long it survives and in what shape.”

It will also give Annea a chance to revisit Essex. She says: “I lived in Ingatestone for about three years in the early Seventies, drawn there by French sound poet, Henri Chopin. Henri was already living there in a property which had a gatehouse for rent, and I was happy to move from London to the countryside.

“While there I continued as a free- lance composer and also teaching piano in Colchester. I’ve never been to Harwich, but am delighted to be returning to Essex, which I loved.”

Piano Transplant: Eastern Exposure is at Harwich Beach until July 7. Go to harwichfestival.co.uk