After Maceda: Music for 1000 Bicycles (2022 - 2024)

generative sound sculpture/performance

iniciated by Dayang Yraola, curator from Quezon City, Philippines

 

 

“After Maceda, Music for 1000 Bicycles“ is a mobile sound sculpture. The

collaborating artists Dayang Yraola, Tintin Patrone, Nils Knott and Cooper-

frau Melissengeist produced sound works that will be uploaded on mobile

music players which will be fitted on 100 bicycles performing a 40 minute

choreography.

 

This work is inspired by Jose Maceda’s composition “Music for 1000

Automobiles in the Freeway“, proposed in 1968. His idea was to produce

music on cassette and have them mounted on cars that will run along an

American freeway. He called it “gigantic structure of sound or a sound-

machine“. As per records, it appears that this proposal was not realised in

his lifetime.

 

“Music for 1000 Bicycles“ is a project by Dayang Yraola and similar to

Maceda’s work in a sense that the music will be delivered using moving

vehicle. It is significantly different however, as the conception of “1000

Bicycles“ is triggered by the extended lockdown that was experienced in

2020. Particularly, Manila had the longest lockdown in all Asian countries.

When the mobility in the City was loosen, only minimal public transpor-

tation was allowed. Although there had been bikers in the City before the

pandemic, their numbers significantly grew. This did not only changed the

cityscape, it also significantly affected the soundscape of the city.

 

The ride in Hamburg, Germany, was organized in collaboration with Nils Knott and Cooperfrau Melissengeist.

 

Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM), as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR recovery programme