Wise to the fact that The Lost And Found Orchestra is essentially the next generation of Stomp (possibly the last show I’d be caught paying to see, now that I’ve actually been to Dirty Dancing) Cousin Ruprecht and I hit the pub beforehand, for a couple of prophylactic ales. We also took the precaution of cooking up some (reheatable) Statler and Waldorf one-liners: “Lost and Found? Ha! They should’ve stayed lost!” It was funnier with beer. In our defence, though, the show’s creators (Luke Creswell and Steve McNicholas) invite this kind of abuse. “‘Musical alchemy’?” snorted Ruprecht, reading the programme: “Hm. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be getting gold.”

He was dreading an evening of ‘reorchestrated’ (ruined) classics. Personally, I was all for seeing someone play Flight of the Bumblebee on the milk bottles: my nightmare scenario was some sort of specially-commissioned, over-choreographed, Lionel Blair electro-fest. But yah, boo, sucks to the pair of us. Yes, The Lost And Found Orchestra is the musical equivalent of Cirque du Soleil. Yes, it comes over as a rejection of centuries of instrumental development. Yes, it’s not even always easy to see what their ‘found’ materials are (‘sourced’ would really be closer to the truth), which is half the fun. Yes, there’s an awful lot of extravaganza to mask the fact that there are only so many ways of hitting things. And yes, the whole idea smacks – neither pun intended – of a South London youth music workshop.

But in practice it’s great: technically excellent, and primally pulse-quickening. Twenty-odd blokes and a couple of women demonstrate absolute musical mastery over a collection of saws, water-cooler jars, funnels, traffic cones, drainpipes, bins, fish tanks, shopping trolleys, basket-balls, and a marimba with ‘keys’ the size of Land Rover mud-flaps. For all I know, they were Land Rover mud-flaps.

Junk, then, but far from rubbish. And, notwithstanding a slightly soft landing (the Voicelab choir’s finale was rather more Lion King than Matrix, sadly), a damn sight more interesting – visually and musically – than any orchestral concert I’ve seen in years.

Southbank Centre, until January 11. Tickets, £13.70 - £53.85, 871 663 2500 (www.southbankcentre.co.uk)