Exhibition Soundtracks
Our exhibition soundtracks, organized by LACMA and Mark “Frosty” McNeill of nonprofit radio station dublab, explores a wide-spectrum of music from around the world, the past, and today.
Chris Burden's Urban Light – Audio Soundtrack
Since first illuminating LACMA’s Smidt Welcome Plaza in 2008, Urban Light has drawn flocks of visitors to its iconic glow. The assemblage of historic street lamps perched along Wilshire Boulevard are radiant beacons that are at once L.A.-centric and universal.
This sonic offering is an extension of that luminous spirit—beaming with dynamic patterns and timeless energy, it invites listeners to bath in radiance. Just as Chris Burden carefully positioned his magnificent street lamps to brilliantly immerse those who gather amongst them, these music selections are aimed at lighting up listeners’ ears.
This soundtrack for Chris Burden’s Urban Light sculpture was organized by LACMA and Mark “Frosty” McNeill of dublab, a non-profit radio station exploring wide-spectrum music from around the world.
Beginning Friday, November 20, Urban Light will be closed to the public 10 pm–6 am daily, in accordance with Los Angeles County guidelines for non-essential businesses.
Review our track list on Mixcloud.
Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific
An exhibition soundtrack for Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific organized by LACMA and Mark “Frosty” McNeill of the music collective dublab. Mixing traditional music with contemporary tracks it creates a sonic experience reflecting the Fijian Islands including church choir music, string band music, meke dances, sere ni cumo songs, kava ceremony chants, gesture songs, slit drum rhythms, oceanic field recordings, Indo-Fijian qawali, Rotuman Tautoga dances, the iconic anthem “Isa Lei,” and more.
Review our track list on Mixcloud.
To Rome and Back
The curators of To Rome and Back: Individualism and Authority in Art, 1500–1800 collaborated with Mark "Frosty" McNeill, from the music collective dublab to create a playlist that would capture the mood of the exhibition. The collaboration resulted in an audio experience that facilitates looking, wondering, and imagining what Rome was like in times past. Visitors were hopefully reminded that Rome has many layers —ancient, renaissance, baroque, modern—and that to walk through Rome (and the exhibition) is to meditate on the various ways in which these layers surface and recede.
Review our track list on Mixcloud.
Where the Truth Lies: The Art of Qiu Ying
Mixing ancient Chinese instrumentation—qin, guzheng, and pipa—with modern synthesizers, drum machines, and field recordings, the soundscape complements Where the Truth Lies: The Art of Qiu Ying: an exhibition about authenticity and illusion.
Few artists in Chinese history have proven as enigmatic as the great Ming dynasty painter Qiu Ying (c. 1494–c. 1552), whose life and art reveal a series of paradoxes. Though one of the most famous artists of the Ming period, almost nothing is known about his life. He is said to have been illiterate, yet surviving evidence demonstrates elegant writing. He is said to have had few followers, yet he was the most copied painter in Chinese history. Where the Truth Lies grapples with such issues as artists who cross social boundaries, literacy, and the importance of connoisseurship in determining quality and authenticity.
Review our track list on Mixcloud.
Modern Art
This soundtrack was created for the Modern Art galleries at LACMA in a collaboration between dublab’s Mark “Frosty” McNeill and LACMA’s Senior Curator and Department Head of Modern Art Stephanie Barron.
The musical selections mirror the range of modern art on view—spanning a multitude of genres, eras, regions, and tones—and pairing specific tracks with individual artworks underscores the interconnection between audio and visual mediums. In some cases, the chosen music is from the same time or place as works in the modern art collection, in other cases more contemporary selections echo or tease out aspects of the works on view.
The wide spectrum of music weaves a parallel narrative to the art on display and serves as an ode to the ever-evolving creative continuum represented within LACMA’s Modern Art Galleries
Legacies of Exchange: Chinese Contemporary Art from the Yuz Foundation
This exhibition soundtrack, created by Mark “Frosty” McNeill of dublab in collaboration with LACMA curator Susanna Ferrell, offers a glimpse into the continuum of cultural exchange between China and the West—a feedback loop marked by themes of authenticity, contemporary commerce, and a history of colonialism.
A wide spectrum of Chinese music shares this sonic frame: contemporary tracks, vintage covers of Western pop tunes, and experimental interpretations of classical compositions. The soundtrack serves as an exhibition companion and launchpad for continued reflection on China’s role as a global, artistic entity