Autoblog

click above for more images of the all-Focus orchestra

The European Ford Focus is a big reason that Ford sells more vehicles in the UK than any other automaker, so you'll have to forgive the Blue Oval if it goes overboard in marketing one of its biggest stars. You may remember a Lexus campaign that used the sound systems from 12 Lexus LS 460s to create a virtual orchestra, but Ford has taken the musical theme a big step forward. Composer Craig Richey, sound designer Bill Milbrodt, and friends used a five-door Focus fresh from the factory floor, took it apart, then used the car's many parts to create 31 musical instruments. We're not talking flutes and trombones here, folks. The musical maestros used Focus parts to create such original works as a Rear Suspension Spike Fiddle and Door Harp. Ford will then hand over the Motorcraft-edition instruments to a full-blown orchestra to lay the sound track for the next Focus commercial. The ad will be aired on ITV in Europe on Feb. 4.

We may not have the Euro Focus on our shores, but we are hoping we can get the song on our iPods so that we can ask SYNC to play it when driving our less-dashing Focus. Check out Ford's press release after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

One of the curses I've faced as a recording engineer is that the symphony of every day life drills itself through my skull. It can be quite distracting. People try to converse with you, and all you can focus on is the groovy rhythm coming from a rattly interior bit. Avant-garde musicians and composers have been attuned to the music life creates for many years. John Cage, for instance, wrote pieces that use big fans as an orchestral section. Cage's 4'33 would be the perfect cellphone ringtone, but until that's available, I'd settle for a piece penned by University of Maine music professor Philip Carlsen.

Inspired by Cage's work, professor Carlsen came up with "Car Life: a traffic jam session for automobile orchestra." There aren't too many traffic jams at the Framingham, ME campus where the performance occurred, but for a fleeting moment in time, you could close your eyes and imagine yourself in Manhattan. Initially, the idea was to arrange the automotive orchestra by the timbre of their horns and also incorporate warning buzzers and alarms, but it ended up as a more random affair. There was a "chorus" of Toyotas, however. Like many modern artistic endeavors, not everyone will get it. It's as much a cacophony as incidental music or musique concrete ever was, but we definitely appreciate Carlsen's goal of encouraging people to tune in to the sounds of the world as a type of music.

Click here to hear the symphony

[Source: Hemmings]