When we think of arts institutions as bastions of culture, thought, and innovation, it’s hard to come up with an orchestra doing a better job than the Los Angeles Philharmonic. While their programming certainly doesn’t lack the “classics” that orchestras often rely on to fill seats, they’ve also modeled a more forward-thinking approach.
Thanks to a curious and eccentric LA crowd that is always eager to check out something new, the Nov. 16 world premiere of Doug Aitken’s Lightscape sold out Walt Disney Concert Hall during “Noon to Midnight: Field Recordings,” a 12-hour contemporary music festival featuring performances and art installations in every corner of the hall.
Referenced rather nebulously as an “artwork,” Lightscape is part feature-length film, part art installation, part musical performance. The work is both old and new, rural and metropolitan, and a myriad of other juxtapositions that are all linearly connected. The music and the imagery move through time seamlessly, with each moment reaching back to pull the next one into its place. Pitches linger until they transform into a new piece; faces ripple into each other while searing dissonances fester.
Doug Aitken’s Lightscape — Photographs of Noon to Midnight and Lightscape provided courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
The live-to-picture performances by the LA Phil New Music Group and Los Angeles Master Chorale (led by conductor Grant Gershon) contributed to this kaleidoscopic push and pull. The musicians were also briefly in the film, a meta moment that reminded us of their presence onstage. The small ensemble melted into the scenes on screen with their live performance of Aitken’s music created in collaboration with Gershon and the LA Master Chorale, but the film also included recorded works by notable minimalists like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Throughout the work, the repetition and gradual shifts in rhythm and pitch created a musical labyrinth with as much frenzy as the images flitting across the screen at lightning speed.
The starkest contrast was between the vast natural landscapes of the American West and its bustling city streets. Sprawling aerial views of Death Valley were adorned with lush string melodies from the recorded works, with the denser instrumentation adding bass and buzz at points of momentum. When the setting switched to a more modern city landscape, the on-stage pianists perked up, tapping out punchy, condensed melodies to accompany the gritty scenes.
Pushing us even further from the desolate outdoor setting that opened the film were scenes set in a warehouse. Just as the sounds of birdsong and crackling leaves had previously become one with the music, the clicking and whirring of robotic arms sat atop pulsing and compact club beats that felt straight out of a futuristic video game.
Doug Aitken’s Lightscape — Photographs of Noon to Midnight and Lightscape provided courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
“You can get lost in the blink of an eye” is a refrain throughout the film, one of the few phrases spoken in the entire 67-minute runtime. As a musician, I couldn’t help but connect this to the head-spinning, cyclical minimalist patterns that churned on and on, though I’m sure that’s not what they meant. Rather, the velocity of the film was so great at times, it made the moments of serenity that much much more grounding.
When the screen cut from a chaotic montage of nightlife to a picturesque landscape and airy ascending vocals, it brought the audience back to a simpler time, one of stillness and purity. But by the end of the film, these two extremes were forced to face each other: a frenetic ostinato built as a man in a car barreled through the desert toward another man on a horse, with the car stopping just short of the anticipated collision.
In its multiplicity, Lightscape urges the viewer to interrogate how the passing of time changes the world around us. At a moment when many may be struggling to look toward the future, the work leaves room for interpretation as it sits at the intersection of different styles, themes, and artistic mediums. For those who couldn’t snag a ticket to the premiere, Lightscape will be showcased as a large-scale art installation at the Marciano Art Foundation from Dec. 17, 2024 – Mar. 15, 2025.
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