Roland Interactive Music Lab Featured in Paul Simon Exhibit

Roland has partnered with the Skirball Cultural Center to present a custom interactive music lab at the Paul Simon: Words & Music exhibition, which runs from April 27 through September 3, 2017.

The main exhibition will showcase instruments, records, sheet music, photography and costumes from Simon’s career, as well as showcase performance footage and many never-before-exhibited or rarely exhibited items from Simon’s private archives.  At the Roland music lab, visitors can experience Simon’s work with activities like keeping the beat to “Cecilia” in a communal drum circle and manipulating multi-tracks for “You Can Call Me Al” and “The Boy in the Bubble” using Roland mixing equipment.

Equipped with the ELCajon EC-10 Electronic Layered Cajon, Handsonic HPD-20 Digital Hand Percussion, Octapad SPD-30 Digital Percussion Pad, SPD-SX Sampling Pad, MX-1 Mix Performer, and other Roland products, the lab creates an all-encompassing experience with five main music activity labs (Audio Mixing, Electronic Drum Circle, “Partch” Keyboard, Rhythm Mix & Match, and Harmonizer) and more than ten different interactive music stations.

“The only West Coast stop for this traveling exhibition is right in our own backyard, so we wanted to create something special for the visitors,” said Roland Corporation U.S. vice president of marketing Chris Halon. “The interactive lab will give music lovers the chance to interact with Paul Simon’s hits and experiment on instruments with no previous experience necessary. And where else can you say you got to harmonize with Paul Simon on ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’?”   

Robert Kirschner, museum director of the Skirball Cultural Center, noted that Roland’s interactive music lab adds an important interactive aspect to the exhibit.  

“Our presentation of Paul Simon: Words & Music invites one and all to celebrate the life and legacy of this prolific artist, whose irresistible songwriting and landmark collaborations with artists around the world have built bridges of understanding and opened minds and hearts,” he notes. “By collaborating with Roland on the exhibition’s music lab, we’ve also provided guests with a unique opportunity to interact with Paul’s body of work and with one another.”