Take, for instance, Made in Laterland in which an obsolete guitar is used to produce “intervals or musical notes that [an unbroken] guitar won’t produce.” And there are many broken instruments used throughout this show that Kwong had collected from his friends. Some also has incredibly personal sentimental value. “My father’s guitar, which will be featured in the concert was kept by my mother for many years. She’s sentimental. After my father’s passing, she didn’t want to throw it away even though she doesn’t know how to play it,” he says.

Kwong and Chan not only upcycle these instruments, but they also believe that the personal stories behind each piece can add texture and a personal touch to the music. “The loosened strings, the twisted neck and the marks on the guitar, why [a particular instrument] sounds like this, how it comes to look like this... it can all be part of the [music].”

Then Euphonia, which means “sweet-voiced” in Greek, features a 3D printed organ that produces chords and pitches beyond what a traditional organ can create. And with the performance being outdoors, the natural wind flowing through the pipes will operate the organ to deliver a magical and surreal experience. “When the audience gets closer, they will realise that no one is playing the organ. But you can hear the music and feel [its presence],” Kwong says.

“I see the #musicismore [programme] as an opportunity to turn the ‘flawed sounds’ of [broken] instruments into original music. You don’t always have to work with the materials or ideas that people identify as ‘good’ or ‘perfect’. What people throw away, abandon or see as imperfect can be unique material for something else,” he says.

Although Kwong enjoys writing traditional symphonic music for orchestras, he has long felt that “traditional concert experiences wouldn’t have allowed me to exercise my crazy ideas that went beyond what a concert was.” And that is why in 2019 he founded Project21st with his creative partner Chan to create music and performances in unconventional places such as the former prison at Tai Kwun. Their platform connects new overseas talent with local musicians who aspire to create experimental music but may not know how to, and it is a domain that’s only starting to gain recognition in Hong Kong despite already being more popular overseas.

Part of the challenge of popularising experimental music in this city is something that Kwong knows well: “As a classical composer, I’ve been quite fortunate to have continuous commissions in the past ten years, but it’s more challenging to get funding and support [from the government or arts groups] if I create something beyond a classical concert, which people have been staging and studying for the past 300 years,” he says. “With a new domain of music, it takes more effort, time and thinking before you can come up with something concrete and substantial to present to people [and for them to then accept it].”

“Times are changing, and people are getting more aware of new music and the need for more [such] artists,” Kwong says. “Project21st isn’t the [first of its kind as an organisation] in Hong Kong, but we want to be one of the initiators who are trying to find a new way to do what [they] want to do, rather than settling for the existing model of the cultural scene.”

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