James Murphy outlines plans for musical subway turnstiles

James Murphy has tried his hand at an awful lot of stuff since the assisted suicide of LCD Soundsystem, but his latest project is one of his most ambitious.

For the past 15 years, he's wanted to change the New York subway's turnstile system so that the high pitched bleep that's let off when a Metrocard is swiped can be replaced by harmonic notes. This would mean that whenever somebody passes through the turnstile, music would be created.

The turnstile orchestra – or subway symphony – was reported a while ago and it sounded like one of Murphy's many fun, hairbrained schemes that get brought up every so often, but he has actually put together a fairly convincing video with the Wall Street Journal that outlines his intentions in full. 

Quoth the Wall Street Journal: "[Murphy] has worked out a unique set of notes for every station, one of which would sound each time a passenger swipes his or her MetroCard to catch a train. The busier a station becomes, the richer the harmonies would be. The same notes would also play in a set sequence when the subway arrives at that stop. Each of the city’s 468 subway stations would have note sets in different keys."

Murphy's believes that the idea is a feasible one – some subway stations will be redesigned to improve the flow of passengers, so with the system being changed anyway, why not change it to this?

Watch the video below. If, after watching it, you find yourself feeling passionate about Murphy's cause, you can sign a petition to show your interest here.

[via Wall Street Journal]