A [For 100 Cars] is a minimalist composition by Ryoji Ikeda. It was written in 2017 and performed on 15 October as part of a Red Bull Music Academy festival held in Los Angeles. The piece is written for an "orchestra" of 100 cars, which produce sound using sine wave synthesisers. Each synthesiser is tuned to a different pitch that has been associated with the note A throughout history. The synthesisers were created by Tatsuya Takahashi and Masimillian Rest.

Composition 
Ryoji Ikeda is a Japanese audiovisual artist and composer. His earliest solo installation is A, which he created because he was curious about the various frequencies associated with the musical note A. Concert pitch A has been used as tuning standard throughout history but was associated with many different frequencies before being standardised to 440 Hz in 1975 by the International Organization for Standardization. Since starting the project in 2000, Ikeda has exhibited serveral versions of A at various venues including the Hayward Gallery (2000), Minnesota Street Project (2018) and Centre Pompidou (2018).

Ikeda composed a new version of the project, A [For 100 Cars], as part of a Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) festival held in Los Angeles. The use of cars in the composition was conceptualised six months prior to its performance, during a conversation between Ikeda and the co-founder of the RBMA, Torsten Schmidt. While talking about cars, they considered making an "automobile orchestra". They decided to use synthesisers to create the sounds emitted by the cars. The synthesisers used for the performance at the festival were designed by Tatsuya Takahashi, the synthesiser designer who formerly worked as chief engineer at Korg. The project was the first design Takahashi had made since leaving Korg. Takahashi partnered with Masimillian Rest of E-RM, a Berlin-based musical instrument maker, to create the synthesisers over a period of around three months. 

Ikeda views the composition as a collaboration between himself and the car drivers. When asked by LA Weekly, he was reluctant to take credit for the piece, saying:

LA: Cars + Music 
As part of the project's creation, a short film titled LA: Cars + Music was made by Van Alpert and Estevan Oriol, a Los Angeles-based photographer, in collaboration with the Red Bull Music Academy. The film includes interviews with Oriol; Bella Doña, a Los Angeles car club; Guadalupe Rosales, a visual artist interested in Los Angeles' car culture; Rod Emory, a creator of "Outlaw Porshes" at Emory Motersports, and Dorian Valenzuela, a former Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer who refurbishes Alfa Romeos. The film documented the influence of music in the city's car culture: each interviewee was asked what type of music they listen to while driving.

Music 

A [For 100 Cars] is performed by a group of 100 cars. This arrangement was called "the world's largest synth orchestra" by Mixmag and Vice. A full performance of the piece lasts for around 27–28 minutes. Each car has a sine wave synthesiser connected to its sound system which constantly outputs a drone at a frequency that has been associated with concert pitch A at some point in history, from 1361 to 1936. The frequencies range from 376.3 to 506.9 Hz. 

Some frequencies chosen by Ikeda include:

 376.3 Hz – used by the organ of l'Hospice Comtesse (dated ) in Lille
 419.6 Hz – used by the organ of Seville Cathedral
 422.7 Hz – used by the tuning fork of John Broadwood and Sons, London (17th century)
 427 Hz – used by the Paris Grand Opera (1811)
 430 Hz – used by the tuning fork of Henry Lemoine (1810)
 457.2 Hz – used by the tuning fork of Steinway and Sons (1879)

Performance 
As the piece is loud (reaching almost 160 dB), a safety test was completed in Cologne before the performance in Los Angeles. To make sure that it was a safe experience for the driver, Ikeda personally took part in the test. In the performance, all drivers were given a pair of headphones.

The performance of A [For 100 Cars] took place on 15 October 2017 at a multi-storey car park at 131 South Olive Street, Los Angeles. This location is opposite the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The 100 cars used for the performance were lined up in rows on top of the car park. The performance began at dusk at 6:17pm in front of an audience of around 1000 people. At the start of the performance, the drivers started their engines and created a grumbling sound by revving them: a sound some likened to an orchestra tuning.

The performers were from Los Angeles and were chosen by Ikeda for their car's modified stereos. Some performers were members of Los Angeles-based car clubs, but no performer was a professional musician. The car's designs were varied and included sedans, SUVs and Los Angeles' signature lowriders. Each performer was given a coloured score to read which dictated when to play the synthesiser, as well as the volume and octave (from A1 to A8). During the performance, some cars used their horns and headlights or had open doors. The performers included some notable residents of the area including Estevan Oriol, who was driving his Chevrolet Impala SS.

Reception 
A [For 100 Cars] received a mixed reception from reporters and audiences. It was widely seen as unusual: Selim Bulut of Dazed commented that the sound produced was an "unusual but calming ambient tone". Writing in Vice, Emily Manning agreed, saying that "the A notes sounded a bit like what you might expect to hear when UFOs land, but more peaceful, almost like a field of humming June bugs". In the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts wrote that the performance "felt like a feat not only of bringing imagination to life, but of organization and community". Jon Caramanica wrote in The New York Times that A [For 100 Cars] "turned negative space in the center of downtown Los Angeles into a sublime womb [and] felt like a meditation". Mixmag put the event on their list of the best performances of the festival, and praised the "depth of thinking and originality behind the piece [which] made it a breathtaking experience for those in attendance". Other listeners were not as impressed. In Autoweek, Mark Vaughn wrote that "most of it sounded, frankly, kind of bland" but conceded that "it was kind of cool to experience".

References

Sources

External links 
 YouTube video explaining the project

2017 compositions
Minimalistic compositions
Music of Los Angeles