LACMA’s New Soundtrack Wants You to Listen to the Building

When museums talk about “immersive experiences,” it’s easy to imagine hidden speakers or sound installations woven through the galleries. That’s not what’s happening at LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries.

Instead, the museum and KCRW have created something more understated: a pair of listening experiences designed to accompany your visit through your own headphones.

The project, Currents: A Soundtrack for the David Geffen Galleries, is less an exhibition than a musical companion. Curated by KCRW Music Director Alejandro Cohen, the playlist is described as reflecting the open-ended nature of Peter Zumthor’s architecture – moving fluidly across genres, eras, and cultural references rather than following a single narrative. Like the galleries themselves, the soundtrack invites wandering rather than directing it.

The more intriguing commission, however, is a site-specific edit of Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe’s Big Empty Country. Rather than filling the museum with ambient sound, the piece is intended for a single Peter Zumthor-designed bench overlooking Wilshire Boulevard. Visitors are invited to sit, put on headphones, and experience the architecture, the city, and the music together. It transforms a simple pause into an act of listening.

That distinction matters. This isn’t background music piped into the galleries or an audio guide explaining the art. It’s an optional layer that visitors select for themselves. The artworks remain silent; the soundtrack exists only for those who decide to press play.

The decision also reflects a practical reality. A museum housing works from vastly different cultures and historical periods would struggle to impose a single sonic atmosphere without competing with the art itself. By making the music personal – streamed through a phone or device’s headphones rather than broadcast through speakers – LACMA avoids overwhelming the galleries while still offering an interpretive experience.

Listening is straightforward. Both the Currents playlist and the special edit of Big Empty Country are available through the Bloomberg Connects app and KCRW’s website. Visitors simply bring their own headphones and choose whether to add the soundtrack to their visit.

Whether the experiment succeeds will depend on the listener. Some visitors may find that the music deepens their engagement with the building and the collection. Others may prefer the quiet that museums have traditionally offered. In either case, LACMA’s collaboration with KCRW marks an interesting shift: instead of telling visitors what to think about the art, it invites them to experience the museum through another sense – one that remains entirely optional.

KCRW’s release:

The mix is designed to complement the flow of the galleries and the themes explored in the artworks. While the David Geffen Galleries do not have a single designated entrance, the music has been structured with the understanding that many visitors may enter from the north side of Wilshire into the wing overlooking Tony Smith’s outdoor sculpture, Smoke, which serves as a visual point of reference.

From there, the mix unfolds as a natural, unhurried journey through the space, intended to accompany a moderate walk lasting approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes. The suggested path begins in the Pacific Ocean galleries, followed by the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, and concludes in the Atlantic Ocean galleries.

Visitors are, of course, free to explore the galleries in whatever way feels most natural to them, with the music offering a flexible guide rather than a fixed route.