Somewhere in Los Angeles, a train is pulling into Wilshire/Vermont station — and somewhere on the internet, a piano note just quietly bloomed into existence. Not because a composer decided so, but because a bus showed up on time. (Which, in LA, is arguably the more miraculous event.)
A delightful web project called Metro Music has done something genuinely wonderful: it’s transformed the live movements of Los Angeles Metro trains and buses into an ever-evolving ambient soundtrack. Every single note you hear is triggered by a real vehicle arriving at a real station in real time. The result is a generative musical composition that is, quite literally, conducted by the city itself.
Think of it as Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports,” except instead of serene minimalism conceived in a recording studio, you’re getting serene minimalism accidentally co-written by the 7:42 Blue Line and a Rapid Bus that somehow made every light on Vermont Avenue.
The genius here is that the music is always changing. Rush hour — with its flood of arriving trains — presumably sounds like a Philip Glass fever dream, all cascading notes and overlapping tones. The quiet hours after midnight, when only a handful of night owls are rattling across the basin, might offer something sparse and meditative. The city breathes, and this project makes you hear it.
It’s also, perhaps unintentionally, the most soothing possible way to think about LA traffic. Instead of staring at a red-saturated Google Maps and quietly weeping, you could just… listen to it become jazz.
The project was built by Weiss Wide Web and is free to experience in your browser. Put it on in the background while you work. Let the 720 Rapid play you a lullaby.
*Source: Boing Boing*
Original story via Boing Boing
