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In 1922, Arseny Avraamov realized the wildest dream of the early avant-garde: the city-orchestra. The performers were not musicians, but the infrastructure of Baku itself: factory chimneys, foghorns of the Caspian flotilla, artillery batteries, and even hydroplanes. The central instrument was the "Magistral" — a tuned steam organ made of ~50 locomotive whistles that played the melody of "The Internationale" while machine gun crews tapped out the rhythm.

Controlling this chaos required military logistics. Avraamov conducted from a tower (the "captain's bridge") using a system of semaphore flags and signal flares, while commands to distant districts were relayed via a field telephone network. This was the manifesto of "Revarsavr" (Revolutionary Arseny Avraamov), who called for burning pianos in favor of a new, "ultrachromatic" music of the industrial world, the physical power of which was overwhelming.