James Murphy collaborates with IBM to soundtrack the US Open

Since his retirement from LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy’s attempted to soundtrack the New York subway, he’s produced his own brand of fancy coffee, and now he’s taking on sport by soundtracking the US Open.

Using a three-part algorithm and an automated process, Murphy’s made over 400 hours worth of music to match every ace, double fault and unforced error in a tennis match. Games played out in the tournament so far can be clicked on individually, and as they progress, the songs develop from minimal synth numbers into something more catastrophic. Listening to all 400 hours would probably require professional treatment afterwards, but the intention is to “translate between the tennis and sonic data.”

It might be game, set and match on Murphy’s time with LCD Soundsystem, but he’s clearly in the middle of an exciting musical patch.

Stream the games and music over on the IBM Cloud.