Following several previous collaborations, most recently on the UKMVA and Cameraimage winner Undertow, Alex Cook has reunited with post rock outfit Son Lux to create a major artwork - an immersive installation that is currently on a museum tour in the USA. 

The video for Out Into Us is a five minute cutdown version of the full 17 minute original - where Son Lux stretches the song into an expressionistic landscape. And it's something of an artwork in itself.

It opens on the image of a house on an open plain about to be enveloped in a huge cloud, and follows with a series of equally striking images. Within the house, a family are preparing for an approaching storm - and then feel its full force.

There's something both quite classic or timeless about its creation of the scenario - it could be Dustbowl America in the 1930s - while also tapping into very modern anxieties.

And Cook delivers what some may consider a contentious twist to the traumatic weather event the family are experiencing. The external threat of the storm is gradually revealed as something constructed. By stepping into the storm rather than retreating, the illusion collapses. 

As with Alex Cook's previous work with Son Lux, the cinematography is sublime - including the use of high-speed cameras. Their earlier collaborations have been recognised at the UKMVAs for the quality of the image-making and it would be surprising if it did not happen again. 

The full installation - which grew from guitarist Rafiq Bhatia's reworking of the song, taking it apart at the level of tempo itself and using playback as an instrument - is currently on view at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. 

The project deliberately pushes against how music is increasingly experienced in the era of social media, where songs are often reduced to bite-sized fragments embedded without context in an endless scroll. 

"Out Into Us (Slow Down)" — Upcoming Installation Dates:
12 September – 21 October — North Adams, MA — MASS MoCA
9–11 October — Philadelphia, PA — ICA Philadelphia
4–7 November — Indianapolis, IN — Herron Galleries, Indiana University Indianapolis, in partnership with COMPANION
16–20 December — Brooklyn, NY — Pioneer Works