Out Into Us (Slow Down) video installation
On view at MASS MoCA September 12–October 21, 2026
North Adams, MA, July 28, 2026 — MASS MoCA is pleased to announce a new large-scale video installation by the Academy Award-nominated band Son Lux entitled Out Into Us (Slow Down), will have its East Coast premiere September 12–October 21, 2026. Commissioned by MASS MoCA, Caviar, and Pioneer Works, and created in collaboration with video director Alex Cook, the installation serves as an abstracted embodiment of Out Into Us, the title track from Son Lux’s forthcoming ninth studio album, Out Into (release date: September 18, 2026).
In an age of device dependency and information onslaught, contemporary musicians increasingly must consider not only the public presentation of their music but also its visual representation. Music videos became a critical component of an album’s presentation with the advent of MTV, but in the last decade, social media has created a reality in which music is eclipsed by the visual, served up in an endless buffet of bite-sized and contextless flavors. The product, or medium, is increasingly the ocean of content and its recontextualization, while the album or song itself, or message, is but a small island on the horizon.
Out Into Us (Slow Down) is a 17-minute experience of both the song and the music video which creates an expressionistic landscape allowing individuals to inhabit both simultaneously, as opposed to the current trend of fragmenting, condensing, and embedding content in a barrage of social media and algorithmic marketing. It recenters creativity and exploration, and reclaims forces of deconstruction and fragmentation, channeling them instead toward discovering a song’s essence more deeply, rather than the many scattered and flat moments amidst an individual’s doom scroll.
Son Lux’s guitarist, Rafiq Bhatia, who led the title track’s rework, took the song apart at the level of tempo itself, drawing on a lineage of artists who used the mechanics of playback as an instrument in its own right. He adds, “Sound can create a sanctuary, a space in which we can remember what it feels like to feel present in our bodies and lost in our thoughts. When you decrease the playback speed of a piece of music, you can really linger in its hidden corners and shadows: passing tensions and moments of release become whole rooms you can step into and stay for a while.”
“Son Lux has a long history with MASS MoCA, and we are thrilled to be able to support their new works in a three-part format that amplifies the incredible experimentation and artistry that the creative team is known for,” says Kristy Edmunds, Director, MASS MoCA.
As a companion to the video installation, Son Lux and MASS MoCA Records will present a limited-edition LP release of its score, pressed on pink vinyl, also entitled Out Into Us (Slow Down) (release date: September 12, 2026). Signed copies will be available for a limited time at MASS MoCA’s Research and Development Store. Pre-orders are now available online.
Out Into Us (Slow Down) will also be presented in the following cities by the following partners in 2026:
- September 3, Minneapolis, MN, at Cruise in partnership with Liquid Music
- October 9–11, Philadelphia, PA, at ICA Philadelphia
- November 4–7, Indianapolis, IN, at the Herron Galleries, Indiana University Indianapolis, in partnership with COMPANION
- December 16–20, Brooklyn, NY, at Pioneer Works
About Son Lux
From the start, Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen. The Academy Award® and BAFTA-nominated band strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made, and reconstruct it from a molecular level. What began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott expanded in 2014, thanks to a kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia too strong to ignore. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring six records, including Brighter Wounds (2018) and triple album Tomorrows (2021). The result is a carefully cultivated musical language rooted in curiosity and balancing opposites that largely eschews genre and structural conventions. And yet, the band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward.
Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions. Son Lux scored A24’s Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once for which they were nominated for two Academy Awards and a BAFTA. The full score album features new collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, Randy Newman, and Moses Sumney, among others. They recently scored Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* and Bassam Tariq’s upcoming Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
About Alex Cook
Alex Cook, a Los Angeles-based director, possesses a unique style characterized by his expressive and evocative imagery. His work has been recognized and featured on NPR, Vimeo Staff Picks, Nowness, Directors Library, and Variety, among others. His short film for Son Lux’s ‘Undertow’ received the “Best Alternative International” award at the UK Music Video Awards in 2023, as well as the Camerimage “Golden Frog” for Best Music Video.
His work has also received an additional nomination at Camerimage and secured the Silver Screen at the Cannes YDA’s, along with garnering recognition at various other awards such as the Young Guns award, Kinsale, Berlin Commercial, and 1.4 Awards, among others.
About MASS MoCA Records
Launched in October 2025, MASS MoCA Records is a new record label created and operated in collaboration with Hen House Studios that establishes a unique framework for record-making by centering, artistic creativity, museum residencies, and live music-making. The label provides an alternative to the current commercial model for how independent music is heard, developed, and shared. A limited number of albums will be released each year, and many are produced at various recording studios in the Berkshires. Artists selected for the new label are an extension of the museum’s curatorial ethos, and the label does not have a scheduled application process.
About MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA is a contemporary art museum that emphasizes bold creative exploration and fosters surprising connections between people every single day. It upholds artistic freedom and is an indispensable home for artists who stretch toward what has yet to be created. From its beginnings as the major textile mill, Arnold Print Works, in the mid-19th century, to its days as the Sprague Electric Company in the mid-20th century, to its current existence as a globally renowned, contemporary art museum and fabrication center, the MASS MoCA campus has a rich history of serving as an economic engine of the City of North Adams and the surrounding region. With vast galleries, artist studios, and a variety of indoor and outdoor stages, MASS MoCA is able to embrace art in all forms. For more information visit massmoca.org or follow on Instagram at @massmoca.
For more information, please contact:
MASS MoCA Communications Team
press@massmoca.org
Download the press release here.