ISSUE Project Room closes its 2025 season with Light of Day, a new work-in-progress by cellist and co-founder of the Books, Paul de Jong, presented with longtime friend and collaborator Beth Daunis. Returning to ISSUE for the first time since 2018 for an incredibly rare performance, de Jong continues his expansive exploration of sound and image, approaching this new project as an audiovisual inquiry into motion, speech, gesture, light, and sonority. Together, de Jong and Daunis examine how the interplay between contrast and convergence shapes our emotional perception—how fundamental acts of expression can reveal the deeply human within the abstract.
On Friday, December 12th at 8pm, ISSUE invites Members, press, and special guests to an exclusive preview of Light of Day, featuring an artist talk with de Jong and Daunis moderated by Braden King, sharing insights into the work’s development and process. Members can access discounted tickets online using your unique code. To request press access, please email sylver@issueprojectroom.org.
Dutch-American cellist-composer Paul de Jong is probably best known as co-founder of collage-pop eccentrics, the Books. After the band’s breakup in 2011, de Jong embarked on a wild creative trip which to date has produced two solo albums and a single on Temporary Residence, live shows, videos, prints, collaborations, and the unlocking of his vast archive of fringe media aka the ‘Mall of Found’.
Violinist and composer Beth Daunis was raised in classical music, yet shaped by dance music and improvisation. Her life's work resides in the intersection of sound and healing. Beth has explored this subject through a constellation of genres including Americana, flamenco, reggae and rock.
Braden King is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, photographer and visual artist whose work explores the intersection of music, landscape and experiential storytelling. His films and installations have premiered at festivals and venues including Sundance, Tribeca, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, MoMA, and MASS MoCA. King’s long-running collaborations with composer and cellist Paul de Jong have spanned multiple projects, including a series of live cinema performances that merge film, sound and improvisation. He has worked with a wide range of musicians throughout his career, creating music videos, concert films, and hybrid works that often foreground the expressive possibilities of music and sound.
