Finally, A Way To Make Cellphones At Concerts Less Annoying

Today’s Wall Street Journal takes a look at musicians who use that concert-going scourge–the mobile phone–in their pieces, thus making the prospect of leaving the “ringer on” switch at shows at least a little bit less embarrassing for rude concertgoers. One of the composers profiled by the Journal is Bora Yoon, whose delicate cellphone-voice-handclap piece “Plinko” is currently streaming from her MySpace page. As it turns out, Yoon’s creative juices only really get flowing around a particular brand of cell phone:

The cellphone caught her ear for its “old school and wonderfully dated” timbre, she says, like “you’re stuck in a calculator or a digital clock from the 1990s.” She trained herself to play the cellphone, hooking it up to digital effects that give it an ethereal quality, echoing as though it were in a giant concert hall. She learned to lay one melody over another, creating harmonies and dissonant effects.

Ms. Yoon has incorporated the phone into her solo act, using it alongside her voice and other instruments. She has also collaborated with musicians including Suphala, a tabla player and protégé of Indian legend Zakir Hussain, and DJ Spooky, an avant-garde hip-hop artist and producer. She is picky about her instruments, so not just any phone will do. She insists on playing one particular Samsung model, a 2004 E-105, which she says has a special “pong” tone reminiscent of the “ambient” sound pioneered by British musician and record producer Brian Eno. She buys the Samsung model on eBay as it gets tougher to find in stores. “I need a backup supply,” she says.

Surely Samsung has a bunch of unsold inventory that can be donated to Yoon’s efforts? If they play it right, after all, they could have a public-relations trifecta on their hands–recycling cellphones, encouraging proper concert etiquette, and appreciating art. Everybody wins! Well, except people who shelled out list price for the phone in the first place.

Bora Yoon [MySpace] Playing Cellphones On Stage Has Ring Of Respectability [WSJ]