IT'S not the first time it has received artistic attention.

But it will be the first time the Finnieston Crane has sung.

The Glasgow landmark is to be transformed into a musical instrument for the first time, when a leading American sound artist reveals its natural groans and rattles using a set of highly sensitive microphones.

The crane – the Grade A listed structure which was built in 1932 to lift heavy machinery on to ships and which was famously adorned with a Straw Locomotive by the late George Wyllie – is the latest installation work by Bill Fontana, a US sound artist who has also created works on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and art galleries and museums around the world.

Fontana has installed a camera, which points up into the frame of the crane, and two structural sensors called accelerometers which pick up sounds made by the metal structure usually not heard by the human ear. These ghostly, deep sounds will be relayed to a new structure built under the portico of the entrance to the Gallery of Modern Art in the centre of the city where they will be played alongside a rotating image taken by the fixed camera.

The work is the first of the commissions of music and art from Glasgow's Unesco City of Music organisers.

Fontana, born in 1947, is a composer and artist who uses listening technologies such as microphones, underwater sensors called hydrophones and structural and material sensors, the accelerometers, in his art, and is also developing projects to access seismic activity and the energy ocean waves. His work has been installed in museums and spaces in his home town of San Francisco, New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Venice, Sydney and Tokyo.

Yesterday, the artist was in Glasgow to install the listening devices, which are small recording gadgets set in magnetic metal.

"When I discovered these devices, it made me feel like there was a whole new dimension of reality that I could access," he said. "Sound is like water, it gets everywhere. These recordings make me feel like I am in some kind of spaceship to another place we didn't know before."

He said the deep groaning of the crane is out of human hearing range but may be heard by small animals near the structure.

"I'm incredibly excited to be staging my latest installation in Glasgow – it's a wonderful city with an international reputation for its vibrant music scene and rich industrial heritage," he added.

"The Finnieston Crane is an emblem of the city's engineering past, and I hope this project will uncover sounds that will fascinate and surprise the people of Glasgow and beyond, as well as tap into the history of this iconic structure."

Svend Brown, the director of Glasgow Unesco City of Music, said the artwork will "draw attention internationally to the fantastic home to arts and creativity that Glasgow is".

The installation will be called Silent Echoes – Finnieston Crane and will be unveiled on April 18.