LIGHTSCAPE ORIGIN STORY

In 2017, the Los Angeles Master Chorale approached Doug Aitken about a collaboration, and Doug immediately recognized the potential for an incredible partnership to push their art forms beyond traditional boundaries. 

Doug began to imagine Lightscape as a 12-chapter song cycle that would explore how the individual navigates our accelerating world. Lightscape uses contemporary words and phrases that repeat into abstraction. Each song cycle explores different ecologies from the built environment to natural habitats.

Doug and his collaborator Austin Meredith invited Grant Gershon and Jenny Wong to develop single melodic lines and over the following years worked with Master Chorale singers on harmonies and counterpoint, weaving it together under Doug’s guidance, to form evocative landscapes of sound. 

In February of 2020, Doug created a live performance with a group of Master Chorale singers in the Swiss Alps at his artwork Mirage featuring a mirrored house that reflected the landscape of the Alps. In the middle of the performance, phones suddenly started ringing with urgent messages to return home immediately due to COVID-19, as borders were about to close. The group made it back to California just before the world shut down. 

Shortly after, Doug received a call from the Los Angeles Philharmonic expressing interest in collaborating. When they asked for ideas, Doug proposed developing the Lightscape musical compositions into a more expansive multimedia work that included film and installation. 

Throughout the pandemic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, LA Phil, and Doug developed the project into something both visual and cinematic. Lightscape became a platform to integrate dance, landscape, ecology, architecture, and other mediums, creating a rich, polyphonic tapestry.