A SET of unwanted organ pipes from a Devon church has inspired a night of creative music and performance, featuring a group of local musicians and artists.

The Mosaic of Sound and Vision received the surprise donation of pipes from the dismantled Bovey Tracey church organ, which otherwise would have been scrapped. 

This led to the creation of the Mosaic Pipe Project to recycle the pipes and see how people could combine art and music to give them a new lease of life. 

The organ pipes were offered to around twenty-five artists to transform with only one instruction: "There are no rules."

Their work will be showcased at an exhibition at the Creative Innovation Centre CIC (CICCIC) in Taunton, held on Wednesdays and Saturdays between May 3 and May 20 from 10am until 4pm. 

A group of hand-picked musicians were assembled to produce a series of improvised musical pieces inspired by the transformed pipes, which will feature in a concert held at CICCIC on Thursday, May 5 from 7:30pm.

The musicians participating are: Jo Meikle, Jules Bushell, Tom Francombe, Charlie Hearnshaw, Maxine Green, Louise Lawrence, Su Mo, Shirley Screech, Richard Steward, Ross Dhillon, Hazel Prior, Joe Porter, and Fox Willow Trio. 

Somerset County Gazette: The poster for the concert and gallery. Picture: Mosaic of Sound and VisionThe poster for the concert and gallery. Picture: Mosaic of Sound and Vision

A spokesperson for the exhibition and concert said: "Several church organ pipes were removed from a Devon church to reveal a stained-glass window.

"But these pipes were destined to be scrapped and the Mosaic of Sound and Vision wanted to reuse these historic pipes and thought it would be interesting to see what other creative people could create using these pipes.

"With no funding and no budget, the project obtained the pipes for free and asked that pipers create, transform, reuse the pipe - nothing is ruled out - and try not to discuss ideas with other pipe folk so we all can be surprised at an exhibition and a pipe gathering concert."

The first half of the concert will be a series of short original musical compositions inspired by sound stimuli taken from the pipes, visual stimuli from the stained glass windows, and contextual stimuli based on the church's history. 

The second half of the concert see each pipe illuminated in turn, with the musicians creating a soundscape in response to what they see.

The spokesperson added: "The sound palette will be rich and varied and the instrumentation will be spectacular." 

Tickets for the concert will cost £10.50 (including a booking fee) and can be purchased HERE.

The exhibition will be free to enter. 

CICCIC is located at the Memorial Hall in Paul Street, Taunton.