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Doug Aitken’s “Lightscape” is a seven-screen, film-based installation that just completed a run at the Shed’s 12,000-sq.-ft. Darla Moore Gallery that completed its run earlier this week, but as part of the venue’s annual
invite-only gala on Thursday night, Jamie XX played a live score as the images rolled by, in an immersive setting of sound and vision.
Aitken’s 65-minute installation features multiple characters — played by Natasha Lyonne, Beck, members of the Los Angeles Dance Project and more — moving through settings across America, from deserts and remote mountains to factories and highways. The images are vaguely Wim Wenders-esque, and although several of the scenes feature more than one person, the characters rarely interact. In a brief conversation with Variety after the show, Aitken said that, broadly speaking, the installation was a reflection of the isolation and dissocations people can feel in modern society.
Jamie XX’s solo work is electronic in nature but is often more centered around melody than the music of many of his contemporaries. While his score for this particular show was more atmospheric and less song-based than his excellent 2024 album “In Waves,” the hallmarks of his sound remained — unusual juxtapositions of voices and beats, and sound manipulation that the audience, which was free to talk right up to the console behind which he and his equipment were creating the sounds, was able to watch in real time. Surprisingly, the set ended with “Doot Doot,” a low-key 1983 dance song by Welsh synth-pop outfit Freur (which featured two future members of Underworld) that was popular with new-wave DJs during that era.
While on certain nights during the summer the installation featured live improvised performances from the Los Angeles Master Chorale, William Basinski, Suzanne Ciani and the Sun Ra Arkestra, Jamie told Variety that he and Aitken had been collaborating on the project for months, and the music he prepared for this performance had been recorded, although he wasn’t sure whether it will be released. Whether or not it is, the performance suggests that he has considerable potential as a film composer.
