A (For 100 Cars)
2017 minimalist composition by Ryoji Ikeda / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A [For 100 Cars] was a site-specific project created by Ryoji Ikeda. It took the form of a piece of minimalist music, composed in 2017 as part of a Red Bull Music Academy festival held in Los Angeles. The piece is part of Ikeda's series of installations exploring the musical note A and was written for an "orchestra" of 100 cars, which produce sound using sine wave synthesisers created by Tatsuya Takahashi and Masimillian Rest. Each synthesiser was tuned to a different pitch that has been associated with A throughout history, creating beating patterns as the sine waves interacted. During the course of the composition, performers modulated the octave and volume of the sine wave tones according to a score.
A [For 100 Cars] | |
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Minimalist composition by Ryoji Ikeda | |
Occasion | Red Bull Music Academy festival |
Performed | 15 October 2017 at 131 South Olive Street, Los Angeles |
Duration | 27–28 minutes |
Scoring | 100 cars, playing sine wave synthesisers |
A [For 100 Cars] was performed on 15 October 2017 on top of a multi-storey car park opposite the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Approximately 1,000 people attended the performance, which lasted around 27–28 minutes. Journalists had a largely positive reception to A [For 100 Cars], and commented on the unusual nature of the work and the creativity behind it. Mixmag included the piece's performance on their list of the best performances of the festival. As part of the project, local film makers Van Alpert and Estevan Oriol created a short film named LA: Cars + Music to show the influence of music on the car culture of Los Angeles.