LCD Soundsystem Takes You Inside the World’s First Underground Park

Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem has narrated a video tour of New York City's Lowline, billed as the world's first underground park. Check it out via Nowness.

Carved out of a trolley terminal adjacent to the Essex Street subway station on New City City's Lower East Side, the park features innovative solar technology designed by James Ramsey that will allow plants to grow beneath city streets. Another highlight of the Lowline is the "Subway Symphony," a sound-enhanced entrance created by Whang's bandmate James Murphy that he says is "a little sonic gift."

This musical idea, decades in the making, allows patrons to trigger a note when they push through the turnstile, so that together "it would make a really beautiful piece of music," Murphy told Sound Opinions (via Pitchfork). "It's such a brutal city. I love it, but I think one little gift of kindness would be nice."

The busy Whang collaborated on the video with Swedish filmmaker Petter Ringbom, best known for his 2012 documentary The Russian Winter. She and Murphy are on the road with the recently reunited LCD Soundsystem through September for their first tour since a massive 2011 farewell show at Madison Square Garden.

Already, they've created one of this year's highlights at Coachella with a tribute to the late Prince. They also tipped their hats to David Bowie, with whom Murphy collaborated on Blackstar before the rock legend passed in 2016. There's a new LCD Soundsystem album in the works, too.

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