Music for Bicycles: Ensembles, Symphonies, and Bikelophones
The Bicycle as Musical Instrument turns out to be a surprisingly powerful meme. Last week’s story on the Nutcracker Suite, reconstructed from sampled bike sounds has unleashed links to a whole universe of music produced on bicycles.
The Bike Show, a weekly podcast and radio show from London’s art radio 104.4 FM, happened to do a full podcast episode on music made with bicycles just last week (something in the air, I suppose):
20 November 2006: experimental music and the bicycle, via the all-bike blog Velorution
Best of all, the podcast features artist/composer Stephen Schweitzer’s fantastic Bikelophone, pictured at top. This bizarre assemblage of gear features not only tuned bike parts, but touch-sensitive panels, keyboards, a 16-channel mixer, bells to ring, a bowl to put stuff in and amplify, a PowerBook … ah, well, let’s just let Stephen try to explain all that’s going on:
Bikelophone [Mouse over for component descriptions]
Flip Baber noted that it would be difficult to perform on bicycles without a whole lot of instruments and players. Sure enough, people have done just that. The Bike Show folks are hoping to challenge Londoners to a Tour de France performance of Godfried-Willem Raes’s Second Symphony for ‘Singing Bicycles.’ If you’re not in London or can’t wait, the piece can be performed with just 12 bicyclists. I think this could be a great way to annoy the New York Police Department: want to crack down on our Critical Mass bike rides? Get ready for some en-masse bike performances!
Symphony for Singing Bicyclists
Impromptu symphonies aside, there are a number of regular bike ensembles. The Levenshulme ensemble plays their bikes live, and even uses this specially-adapted bike-instrument, pictured here (from flickr):
Levenshulme Bicycle Ensemble (via velorution again)
And, from CDM comments, yet two more bicycle ensembles’ music, reviewed by Carbusters magazine:
Carbusters Review of Portland Bike Ensemble and Bul Bul Velo
Bul Bul samples, as did Flip for his project; the Portland Bike Ensemble actually plays bikes as strange amplified instruments in improvised ensemble performances:
Bicycles are stood upside down, wired for amplification through various microphones, and played with a beguiling and surprising array of inventive techniques. Spokes are plucked like the strings of a harp, spinning wheels are touched with microphones to produce ethereal otherworldly tones, and cranks are turned with metronomic regularity. The result is an ambient soundscape just this side of cacophony, a mechanical jungle inhabited by curious and expressive machines calling to one another in an organic language.
Still more via comments: the Triplets of Belleville score (thanks, Eliot — great work on hack-a-day, mate!), and a bicycle sound remix project (which, since it’s open source, I suppose you can still go and remix, even if you can’t get on the CD):
Put together by terrific Vancouver label Ache, Project Bicycle is a concept album, with each track created using a common sample of a bicycle making noise. The record is dedicated to promoting the environmentally-friendly transportation method of bicycling, and while it doesn’t really make me want to jump on a bike and jet it to the corner store for a handful of licorice laces, it is a very solid sampling of experimental electronic music from the scene’s current citizens.
-Project Bicycle review on indieville
Any bike performers we’ve missed? Play a little bike yourself? Let us know.
More Bikes:
Part III: More Musical Mayhem, Instant Art with Bicycles
Part I: Nutcracker Suite Played Exclusively on Bicycle Parts
18 Comments
Leave a Commentholotone
Don’t forget the Project Bicycle, a full album of remixes of one original, open source sample track. The featured artist’s list reads like a “best of” the experimental music world:
http://www.indieville.com/reviews/projectbicycle.htm
December 4, 2006 @ 4:18 pm
Eliot
Surprised that The Triplets of Belleville hasn’t been mentioned: http://imdb.com/title/tt0286244/
I think they did a performance at the Oscar’s using at least one bicycle wheel.
December 4, 2006 @ 4:22 pm
Vlad Spears
For Max/MSPers, there’s been an interesting thread on the Cycling forum about just this topic:
Bicycle as a Max/MSP interactive controller
December 4, 2006 @ 4:42 pm
Daryl
My pal Adam Matta does a show called Makeshift, incorporating beat-boxing and “bike-drawing,” riding a bike with paint-covered tires to create images.
http://www.adammatta.com/
December 4, 2006 @ 5:44 pm
Michael Una
I recently was inerviewed for National Public Radio for my “Beat-Bike” project, a bicycle-controlled electronic drum machine.
The details page is here:
http://una-love.com/beatbike
December 4, 2006 @ 6:08 pm
Damon
Cool to still see people making music with analog bikes…
But, please, lets not get into the old analog verse digital bike argument. That never gets anywhere…
And, yes, plug in bikes are cheaper, but they just don’t have quite the same character…
December 4, 2006 @ 10:20 pm
jodru
Mauricio Kagel wrote Eine Brise for 100 cyclists.
December 5, 2006 @ 12:09 am
Nathan Brixius : The Nutcracker Suite played on a bicycle
[...] The Nutcracker Suite played on a bicycle You should check this out if you haven’t already: http://www.specialized.com/bc/microsite/holiday/index.html It reminds me of the Triplets of Belleville, a great movie. And here’s an interesting post about the bicycle as a musical instrument: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2006/12/04/music-for-bicycles-ensembles-symphonies-and-bikelophones/ Published Tuesday, December 05, 2006 12:20 PM by Nathan Brixius Filed under: Fun [...]
December 5, 2006 @ 12:24 pm
LeMel
And, of course, the classic episode of the Steve Allen show (1963), in which a young, bemused FRANK ZAPPA leads a bicycle ensemble (!) … http://youtube.com/watch?v=kGPPBwDBJDs
December 5, 2006 @ 10:03 pm
Create Digital Music » More Musical Mayhem, Instant Art with Bicycles (Pt. III)
[...] In cased you missed it in comments, music-with-bikes resources continue to pour in. If you haven’t found yourself inspired to make music with bikes yet, this should do the trick. [...]
December 6, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
julien Q
hi,
i’ve got a tire tube play in a noisy way, at this site :
http://crawlworm.free.fr
it’s named “tomorrow is the answer” [after O. Coleman], it hear like granulation and white noise but it’s all accoustic.
and there you will find participatives projects, come and see, and maybe participate.
see and hear you soon!
best
julien Q
December 11, 2006 @ 12:43 pm
Create Digital Music » Nutcracker Suite Played Exclusively on Bicycle Parts
[...] Music for Bicycles: Ensembles, Symphonies, and Bikelophones [...]
December 12, 2006 @ 12:51 am
Jon Rose
PURSUIT will feature a veritable orchestra of mobile, bicycle-powered acoustic musical instruments utlising the ground floor and yard at
THE FACTORY, 105 Victoria Rd, Enmore, Sydney (and weather permitting in the park opposite) on
Thursday, January 18th 2007 at midnight, as part of
The NOWnow Festival
http://www.thenownow.net/
Envisaged is a specially-choreographed spectacle of sound, speed and light based on the bicycle.
More ideas and info, including video and mp3 of prototype instruments at the Olympic velodrome, Sydney
http://www.jonroseweb.com/f_projects_pursuit.html
December 19, 2006 @ 4:39 am
Alternate Tunings
Bicycle Music Featured On 90.7 KALX Berkeley! Wed 12/20, 9am PT!
Alternate Tunings-the monthly show on KALX that features a unique musical instrument each month-will feature music composed entirely on bicycles! Show highlights include an interview with Flip Baber-(arranger of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies for Specialized), Frank Zappa’s appearance on the Steve Allen show, and our own little attempt at Jingle Bells!
Edutain yourself!
Stream us at http://www.kalx.berkeley.edu
That’s Wed., December 20th, at 9am PT!
December 19, 2006 @ 7:04 pm
Podcomplex Music Technology Resources » Blog Archive »
[...] Music and bicycles do seem to be strangely compatible - CDM’s most-viewed article ever was about an arrangement of The Sugar Plum Fairy performed solely on bike parts. On the Dublin music circuit, The Jimmy Cake’s live sets often featured the playing of a set of bicycle handlebars. CDM also has another article which covers bike ensembles and the delightful bikelophone. [...]
May 24, 2007 @ 10:32 am
Create Digital Music » Interview: Building a Musical Ensemble Out of Ford Focus Car Parts
[...] seen basses and turntables made from motorcycles, and bicycle parts turned into DJ setups, ensembles, and The Nutcracker. But The Car Music Project has gone further, building two entire ensembles out [...]
February 6, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
Tree Tea
Seen some guy playing a bike last year here.
http://soundings.ie/soundings-1012.html
March 25, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
M(v)élomane... - Velocia
[...] Create Digital Music » Music for Bicycles: Ensembles, Symphonies, and Bikelophones __________________ Defrag Il y a des kilomètres qui valent plus que d’autres. [...]
June 5, 2008 @ 4:55 am
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