Regular passengers on Luxembourg City's tram network will have noticed a different melody playing for every stop. RTL spoke to the composer behind the tunes.
The tram has been part of the capital's cityscape for the past seven years, using a 16-kilometre-long route with 22 stops in its current form. In January 2025, the route will extend out to Luxembourg Airport in Findel, adding another two stations.
Somewhat unusually for a tram network: Luxembourg's tram plays a different melody after it announces the next stop. This was a conscious choice, says Luxtram's Françoise Frieden:
"It's important that passengers can easily see or hear the announcements. So we have screens throughout the tram, but also an audio option. It's important for us that these announcements are clear, pleasant, and easy to understand. The idea for the music came from our general director, André von der Marck, who is a big jazz fan."
After von der Marck attended a concert featuring musician and composer Michel Reis, the choice was simple enough to make. Reis agreed to come onboard the project and has been working with the tram company since 2017, developing and recording the jingles in his own studio. The biggest challenge, he says, is keeping the melodies to a duration of just 20 seconds for each stop, which leaves little space, particularly for a composer used to writing and playing longer pieces.
The jazz musician and composer has released 11 albums to date and travels a lot for his music, frequently appearing in Japan as part of the group “Japan Quartet”. Reis is also part of the “Reis Demuth Wiltgen” trio, and teaches at the Luxembourg City Conservatoire.
When composing, Reis says he allows himself to be guided by spontaneous emotions and the mood of the moment. "There's no rational explanation," he adds. " I go to my office in the morning and I let loose."
He completed the first melodies in 2017, the year of the tram's inauguration. As the network expands, so too do his tunes. He has already completed the melody for the airport station, for example.
"This one has a bit more of a nervous rhythm, to encourage people to rush a bit, and there's a bit of piano to sound like the sun. For me, it's music for going on holiday," he laughs.
And if it weren't enough for every stop to have its own melody, each jingle also comes in four different variations. Reis saw the project as an opportunity to show how wide and varied music can be. "What you hear on the radio is just one track, but there are so many aspects to it. I used different percussion instruments for different stations, which you might not come across often. Music is so broad and I wanted to display that."
Around 100,000 passengers use Luxtram services every single day, offering Reis a large audience for his compositions. He hopes that his jingles encourage people to discover new instruments, or at the very least, to never miss their stop as they become accustomed to the tune. One way or another, the goal of music on the tram has been achieved.
Video report in Luxembourgish:
