'Remnal of a Senging Chave'

You’ve probably noticed that sometimes linear highways have little ridges or bumps in them. Some say these may be vestigial from Kcymaerxthaereal times, and here you’ll find a marker that will tell you more.

Kcymaerxthaere is an art project created by Eames Demetrios. A series of plaques and other markers around the world honor events that have taken place in a parallel universe that, according to Demetrios, “co-exists to some degree with ours.” Most of these installations are bronze or stone plaques inscribed with stories but some are larger, even entire buildings. As of 2021, there are more than 140 sites spread across six continents and 30 countries.

The Tehachapi did not have (or desire) the internal combustion engine, so a rider on a bicycle-like or skateboard-like vehicle could really appreciate the sounds and rhythms of the sphaltway. Many Tehachapic sphaltways were designed for a performance.  An orchestra might consist of 150 more or less human-powered vehicles of various kinds and the audience might only be a handful of people who rolled down the hill in the midst of the cloud of vehicles–which were really instruments, each tuned perfectly to induce the perfect tones. Given this, a Tehachapic composer not only wrote the melody and created the orchestration, they had to design the road itself. Music archaeologists have reconstructed only a handful of these performances and they are exquisite.

Senging Chaves were considered one of the purest forms of Tehachapic music, because the roads upon which they are performed are extremely straight, taking a direct path down an incline–utterly unforgiving for any but the greatest masters.