Crash, bang, wallop: the composer let loose on the Eiffel Tower samples its many sounds to create unique 'sound work of art' After more than a century of being Paris' most gazed-at landmark, the Eiffel Tower about to become part of an audio work of art. American composer Joseph Bertolozzi has begun an unprecedented project to sample the 324 metre-structure's sounds, which he will work together to create an hour-long public art installation called Tower Music. Bertolozzi, 54, secured permission from the French authorities to move around their beloved landmark striking various parts of it at different intensities and recording the results. He climbed up the famous tower armed with latex mallets, drumsticks and even a large log wrapped in lamb's wool. Thud: Bertolozzi strikes one of the Eiffel Tower's famous iron girders with a log and records the sound he creates Since 27 May Bertolozzi, working with a sound engineer and team of seven others have collected nearly 2,000 samples from the iron structure's railings, panels and girders, weaving in and out of the tens of thousands of tourists who climb the tower every day. Dream: Bertolozzi wants to be allowed back to perform his creation live at the Eiffel Tower next year for its 125th anniversary If they don't get a sound they like, they try another floor. 'A guitarist knows the character of each string, one string is wound with metal, another one is maybe gut string, they're thicker, they're thinner, they know how they respond. So when I look at the tower, now more than before, I know how the thing will respond as an instrument,' he told Reuters. Once all the sounds are captured he will weave the them together, creating chords and melodies over a percussion base. Bertolozzi told Reuters yesterday the idea came from his wife. My wife was mimicking the way I play my percussion with my arms flailing and everything. She was near a poster of the Eiffel Tower, took a swing at it and she went 'Bong!',' he said. From that moment on the composer wanted to incorporate the monument into his music-creating. But he had to overcome difficulties such as speaking no French and having few contacts in Paris. He said he has a tendency to bash out rhythms on household objects such as dinner glasses, doorknobs and crockery. The New York-based composer decided to start locally before realising his Parisan dream. In 2009 he used New York state's Mid Hudson Bridge to create a work called 'Bridge Music'. I got rhythm: Bertolozzi admits he tends to bash out rhythms on glasses, doorknobs and crockery at home Virtuoso without vertigo: Bertolozzi has been working with a sound engineer and a team of seven hundreds of metres above the streets of Paris Melody of metal: from the thousands of sounds Bertolozzi has sampled he hopes to build up a piece of rhythm, chords and a tune That piece, which he described as the 'first music composed for suspension bridge', turned the 450m-bridge into the world's largest percussion instrument by recording the sounds of the structure's guard rails, girders, and other surfaces being struck with various mallets and constructing a piece of music from them. The resulting CD reached number 18 on the Billboard Classical Crossover Music Chart. When the work on Tower Music is finished in nine months, Bertolozzi says he dreams of returning to perform it live at the monument to celebrate its 125th birthday next year. Organisers said the show would require over a hundred musicians with microphones installed all over the iron structure, relaying sounds to the public below. As yet the tower's managers are unconvinced, and have cited security concerns. While some of the tower's staff have been sceptical about the concept of the project, to others it makes perfect sense. Stéphane Roussin, the tower's chief engineer, said the structure makes noises and vibrations. 'It whispers,' he told the New York Times. 'We often bang on it,' he said with a smile, 'to make sure that the material isn't defective'.