James Murphy turns tennis into tunes with new algorithm project

James Murphy has debuted a new project which uses a computer algorithm to turn tennis matches into music. Working with developers and the US Open, the LCD Soundsystem founder has transformed games, serves, sets and matches into lurching, bleepy electronic music.

Dubbed the “US Open Sessions”, Murphy’s automated creations have already begun being posted to a dedicated website. Each match, from Monday’s Serena Williams v Taylor Townsend to the women’s and men’s finals on 7 and 8 September, will be made available in “short” and “long” versions.

According to Self-Titled magazine, Murphy will also be creating 14 remixes, based on “weather changes, crowd reactions and hollow point hooks”. None of the tennis matches sound anything like LCD Soundsystem’s dance-punk hits. This is experimental electronic music, born out of raw data from the tennis games. “It’s a hard project, actually, [which] is kind of exciting,” Murphy said in a promotional video. “We’re going to generate almost 400 hours worth of music, but I’m not going to sit there and play 400 hours of music, just so you know. I’m setting up a machine to do that.”

Murphy is collaborating with a developer called Patrick Gunderson, creative director at Tool, who devised an algorithm to turn tennis plays into sound. With this software in place, Gunderson built a synthesiser-like interface – something Murphy could use to design and tweak each component of the music. “For someone like James, [code] is not how he’s used to working,” Gunderson said. “The dials and the switches ... are something that’s familiar.”

In some ways, the US Open project resembles Murphy’s recent idea for the New York subway system. Back in February, the producer proposed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority re-examine its sonic palette, turning the turnstiles’ “cacophony into music”. Murphy wanted to design tones and melodies identifying different subway stations and transit lines; although he launched a website for this “Subway Symphony”, authorities never officially responded.

Since LCD Soundsystem’s split in 2011, Murphy has worked as a producer with artists including Klaxons, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fire.

• This article was amended on 30 August to alter the Gunderson’s job title