It's been almost three years since James Murphy and his band LCD Soundsystem played their farewell show at Madison Square Garden, but Murphy isn't finished with his mission to bring music to New York City.
What he hopes to do next is soundtrack the New York City subway system. Murphy first introduced the idea back in 2011 but he's reportedly been working on the project for almost 15 years. In a recent interview with Sound Opinions (via Consequence of Sound), he said, "I want to make every station in New York have a different set of dominant keys so that people who grow up will later on in life hear a piece of music and say, 'Oh, that's like Union Square."
Now, The Wall Street Journal has shared a video interview that discusses Murphy's idea.
"I was noticing that the subway sounds quite brutal," he said in the clip. "There's a missing opportunity at the turnstile. At the moment there is kind of this unpleasant beep. Given that all that information is already in the turnstile, why don't we make it a nice sound - just make it pleasant?"
His idea has now found the right timing with New York's MTA recently announcing a $900,000-a-year project to renovate the turnstiles from swiping to tapping.
"I thought, 'This is my chance,' I want to be a part of the installation of the subway inherently, so it doesn't cost any money. There's already going to be a thing that makes a sound. Why can't it make a nice sound? The more I thought about it, I thought it was an opportunity for music. Why not make the worst time in the subway the best times."
His plan is to have the turnstiles from each station generate different notes from a given harmonic set. The busier the subways are, the more times the turnstile will be used, and the more "notes" will be added to the mix.
MTA spokesperson Adam Lisberg told The Wall Street Journal that he thought Murphy's plan was "a very cool idea," but that it might be hard to implement considering the impact a broken or in-repair turnstile might have on the 5.5 million passengers that use the system on an average weekday. He said the transit authority is "not inclined to mess with anything that could get in their way" especially "for an art project."
Murphy argues, however, that implementing the tone generators alongside the current renovations would cost very little and allow both projects to be done simultaneously. In response to the criticism, Murphy has launched a petition to support the project.
Check out the video below to hear the sounds of the subway that Murphy has imagined. Let us know what you think of the idea in the comments section.
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