Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared

A playful journey into the hidden sounds that surround us

Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared begins with a simple premise proposed by British musician Bill Drummond. He asks the viewer to imagine a world without instruments, recordings or music players. What remains for us to hear when all conventional forms of music have vanished. The film explores this question by turning attention to the overlooked acoustics of daily life, from the whistling of the breeze to the vibration of a car engine and the nuances of the human voice. Drummond invites us to sharpen our listening and to recognise the richness of the soundscape that exists beyond familiar melodies.

Director Stefan Schwietert accompanies Drummond on a road trip across Great Britain. At each stop, Drummond casually approaches groups of ordinary people and persuades them to take part in simple sound exercises. These activities involve forming human choirs that produce distinct notes and rhythms in every town they visit. The recordings gathered along the route are later combined into a final collective polyphony that reflects the diversity of the people and places encountered. Among the participants are harvesters, a club of elderly women, Pakistani taxi drivers and students from an elementary school, all encouraged to explore their own sound capabilities regardless of musical training.

As the journey unfolds, Drummond expands his methodology with new variations of the exercises and maintains an open dialogue with the public, who become active contributors to the experience. The film moves beyond traditional observation by reaching towards an interactive dimension that invites viewers to become aware of the sonorous opportunities in their own surroundings. It suggests that rhythm can be found within each of us and that absolute silence is an illusion, replaced instead by the continuous presence of life’s subtle and vibrant sounds.