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The idea for Sonic Bicycle Ride combines Beijing's bicycles - still very evident despite the traffic - with the sampling loudhailers used by street vendors to advertise their wares. These inexpensive devices record eight-second slogans, which playback repeatedly, and loudly, until the batteries go flat. For Sonic Bicycle Ride, eight loudhailers were attached to eight bicycles and used to play specially created sounds as they were cycled around Beijing's streets. Routes were planned through the Xicheng district - an older hutong area crossed by a few busy roads - so that the bikes would be heard in changing combinations, sometimes as one large group, sometimes on their own. The eight layers of sound were designed to be heard separately or to harmonise when brought together. Listeners could follow on their own bikes or stay in one place. Bystanders heard the piece emerging in and out of familiar neighbourhood sounds. "