Jonathan Dueck is no stranger to the Asthmatic Kitty family. He has created several album covers for us and has also released music under his own imprint from Half-handed Cloud and Asthmatic Kitty friends spazz-hop gospel rockers soul-junk. More recently, Dueck took part in the We All Owe tour in which he collaborated and toured with Julianna Barwick and Roberto Lange presenting an evening of experimental film and music. So we have decided to make it official and invite Dueck to our roster.

 

Dueck's first official release is his collection of 20 short, beautiful, color saturated, hand-painted 16mm films entitled IN TRANSIT Presents: 16mm. For this project he collaborated with musicians I Heart Lung, Chad VanGaalen , DENEIR, and Son Lux who each responded to the films in their own unique compositional language. These films were created using old 16mm documentaries that Dueck was given when the Calgary Science Centre was purging itself of obsolete media. Part or all of the existing film was scratched/scraped off and layers of ink were painted, stamped, dripped, and splattered over top. The resulting visuals follow in the tradition of abstract/experimental film-makers such as Norman McLaren and Stan Brakhage. More importantly, the resulting visuals are a wonderful whirl of colors, a living canvas somewhere between the abstract expressionism of Kadinsky, the color fields of Rothko, and the raw textural work of Cy Twombly. The footage has recently been making the rounds with the Dessner brothers (of The National). It was selected by Jessica Dessner for screening at Big Ears Festival as well as The National's Annex series next to Other Music. For these screenings the films were accompanined by Bryce and Aaron Dessner. 

 

The DVD will be released on August 3rd. The soundtrack will also be available digitally. You can read more about the release here.