Z-Trip is a good friend to have. When artist Shepard Fairey was creating his new exhibition Sound + Vision, which opens at the Stolen Space galley in London this week, he called on the ““godfather of the mash up” to create the soundtrack. Z-Trip went to work immediately weaving together bits of music from multiple genres while giving all his unique Z style.
The exhibit, named for a David Bowie song, is very music focused and the mix features bands that have inspired Fairey’s work.
Z-Trip is performing at the opening tonight and the soundtrack will be piped in the gallery through the duration of the show.
Since flights to Europe aren’t cheap, we’ve got our hands on the mix so you can hear it wherever you may be!
Z-Trip — Sound + Vision Soundtrack
Shepard is actually displaying a ¼ of his own record collection as part of the exhibit, which also includes portraits of everyone from Bob Marley to Joe Strummer.
From Shepard:
“Music is visceral, but also has the additional powerful layers of the lyrics, with their content and politics, and the style, politics, and personalities of the musicians themselves. No matter how much I love art, or try to convince myself of its relevance in society, the fact remains that music is much more able to reach people’s hearts and minds.”
For those unfamiliar with Fairey, he is one of the most famous street artists in the world and has also displayed his work in some of the biggest museums, including MOMA, Boston ICA and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
He created the iconic the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” image while still in design school. That visual (which I discovered plastered to freeway overpasses when I first moved to LA 12 years ago) not only ignited the imagination of those who saw it, but evolved into the present day OBEY GIANT campaign – as his site says, “manufacturing quality dissent since 1989”. He also famously created the “Hope” portrait of President Barack Obama, which came to symbolize his 2008 campaign.
His love of music is obvious to us at KCRW. He filled in for our own Henry Rollins during his international travels a couple years ago and you can hear his Guest DJ set in the archives here.
As a producer, Z-Trip has worked with everyone from DJ Shadow, Bassnectar and Datisk to Public Enemy, Will.I.Am and Michael Jackson, naming just a few. As a performer, he is revered as one of the best live performance DJs in history, by both fans and peers. (You also might have spotted him in DJ Hero as a playable character alongside Daft Punk, Grand Master Flash and Deadmau5!).
RR