Django Bates - Pedal Tones

Pedal Tones would realise a year-long, UK wide performance of a new work for pedal bicycle and four ratchet music boxes by Django Bates. The composer hopes this project will link maths, science, sport, health, environment and community through the infinite language of music in a celebration of quintessential British eccentricity.

A pedal bicycle will be adapted, by designer Ben Wilson, so that the turning of its pedals operates four simple ratchet music boxes. Each box plays one voice of a four-part contrapuntal composition by Django Bates. The boxes must be perfectly synchronised. Various cyclists will ride the bike around the UK until the composition has been played from start to finish, currently estimated to take an entire year. A counter would show the cyclists and public what stage the piece is at.

An internationally renowned keyboard player and composer, Django Bates grew up under a variety of musical influences, his father being a collector of Romanian folk, African music and jazz. A founder member of Loose Tubes, Django was a leading light in the 1980s jazz renaissance. The Dutch Metropole Orchestra, The Brodsky Quartet, Joanna MacGregor, Britten Sinfonia and Duisburg Philharmonic have all commissioned new works from Django. As an internationally respected musician he has appeared alongside Michael Brecker, Bill Bruford, Victor Bailey, Wynton Marsalis, Dudu Pukwana and Ronnie Scott. In 1997 he was awarded the prestigious Danish Jazzpar prize, dubbed the ‘Nobel Prize of Jazz’. He is currently Professor of Rhythmic Music at the prestigious Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen.

Ben Wilson is an award winning product/industrial designer who clients include Nike, Ron Arad Associates, Land Rover and Audi, and his work has been exhibited and published worldwide.

“The simplicity of the live bicycle-driven performance element of Django Bates’ idea belies the complexity of the musical structure – configuring 4 musical boxes to create music that lasts 365 days as it travels the country.” New Music Award panel

www.djangobates.co.uk
www.myspace.com/djangobates

Do you agree with the judging panel? Would you be interested in seeing the bicycle in action? Click here to let us know your thoughts...

Reponses so far

"I love bikes and I love Django! The idea sounds perfectly wonderful and wacky the way only Django knows how. Anything that gets his playful, uplifting eccentricity to a wider audience is to be encouraged. I hope you give him the award and I hope you find a way of getting the contraption to France, where I will be able to ride it!"

"Django shows his brilliance yet again. Can I volunteer to do some riding of this wonderful machine/instrument?"

"Having worked with Django in a theatre context, I fully trust his ability to realize an extraordinary concept like Pedal Tones, which would tickle our imagination with regards to what modern music can be and how it can be created. I particularly like the mix of contrapuntal composition, bicycle mechanics and the movement of the human body through space and time. Is the idea of physical travel and changing 'performers' at odds with a musical basis of complex and exact mathematics? I don't know, but I already enjoy thinking about it. Such multi-dimensional work will spin off new ideas in the minds of those who experience it and create ripples in the water of the musical industry... It is a delight to see that the PRS Foundation are put a spotlight on unruly projects like these."

"Brilliant idea in times when sustainability is needed! You do the right thing if this project receives the award."