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February 27, 2008
Posted: 1327 GMT
 LONDON, England — If you live in Europe, you’ll probably have seen the new Ford Focus commercial. A haunting light classical tune played by an orchestra supposedly made entirely out of car parts. As ads go it’s attracted a fair amount of controversy. Tech blogs are alive with chatter that the polished performance cannnot possibly be played on instruments built from car parts in just four weeks, and from an unscientific straw poll in the CNN bureau, viewers are just as sceptical. So when we were invited to see the instruments played live at the Farm Studios, it seemed like a good opportunity to put critics’ comments to the test. The instruments have been constructed by amiable American sound designer Bill Milbrodt and his team. Last September a brand new Ford Focus with less than a mile on the clock arrived in his studio, it was promptly dismantled by a team of crack mechanics and the pieces laid out to see what could be made out of them. The tune — Ode to a New Ford – had already been composed by Craig Richey, so it was a challenge for the team to put together instruments capable of playing a live classical tune. They had just one month to come up with the finished product. The results are surprising. Thirty-one beautifully crafted instruments made out of every car part you can imagine. A stand-up “Spike Fiddle” stands on a shock absorber. There’s a complete percussion set made out of gears and springs. The piece de resistance of the collection is something called the Ford Fender Bass - evidence of the designer’s mischeivous sense of humour - made as the name suggests from a fender and a clever reference to the world famous guitar maker. What’s most surprising is the sound that comes out of the machines. The live performance is impressive if a little more raw than the commercial version. One musician tells me that the flute is tricky to play “you feel a bit like you are fighting with the instrument,” but as Genesis musician Mike Rutherford admits while strumming on the so-called “Clutch Guitar” (an instrument so heavy you have to sit down to play it) “I’m amazed it sounds this good, it’s got quite a nice tone considering what it’s made of .” In reality, the performances in the commercial are acted, but the music is still authentic — the track being played IS the one recorded on the instruments we see before us.
For designer Bill Milbrodt, who pulled apart his own 1982 Honda Accord in the early ’90s to form “The Car Music Project,” it’s really just about experimenting with sound and breaking away from the crowd. “We like to have a bit of fun with it, I mean everyone knows we’re playing car parts, right?”
– From Paula Sailes, CNN Producer Filed under: General |
 
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