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Diazepam Nights - Dirtbox
Diazepam Nights - Dirtbox (2024)
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This release compiles four unreleased Diazepam Nights rarities.

"Dirtbox" pays homage to the legendary underground Los Angeles nightclub of the late 80s. This dark but upbeat dance number was tracked in the same recording session as "It's My World," but didn't fit with the eponymous album's thematic vision.

"Ghosts" was an early recording that possibly predates anything on the album.

"Lift Up Our Wings 1994" and its instrumental mix are updated arrangements of the original album tracks, overdubbed (expanding to 48 tracks) and remixed in 1994 with live drums and an arrangement for French horns.

Release Date Friday October 18, 2024

Haircut No. 1
Haircut No. 1 (2024)
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Composer/filmmaker Jack Curtis Dubowsky cuts his very own hair himself. In real time, Dubowsky removes two years of natural hair growth. These movements simultaneously control a live performance of electronic music via motion capture and Max/MSP software programmed by Minneapolis electronic musician J. Anthony Allen. This collaborative experimental project was filmed with a three-camera setup at the McNally Smith College of Music on December 17, 2010.

Haircut No. 1 examines new performance possibilities for electronic computer music. In Haircut No. 1, visible and poetic body movements control a musical performance, and the audience can see and hear the relationship between those movements and the music produced. This takes Max/MSP and computer music out of the laptop and into a balletic space of physical performance.

Release Date Friday October 11, 2024

Under One Roof Expanded Edition
Under One Roof (OST Expanded) (2024)
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A reissue of Jack Curtis Dubowsky's very first feature film soundtrack, Under One Roof (2002) directed by Todd Wilson, written by David Lewis, recorded in 2001-02.

Under One Roof was the first romcom to center an Asian-white gay male relationship. The film became a LGBTQ festival hit, was picked up by TLA DVD distribution, and sold over 20,000 copies. Under One Roof won awards including "Best Foreign Film" from Mix Brasil and "Special Recognition of a Score" from the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

A limited, promotional, 2002 CD-R release contained the first 26 tracks here, and is SUPER RARE. This 2024 Expanded Edition contains 3 extra unreleased tracks.

29 Tracks

Released Friday June 7, 2024

Helot Revolt But Love
Helot Revolt But Love (2024)
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Jack Spittle drags himself out of retirement to lay down the first new Helot Revolt track in 32 years. After De Stijl Music digitized Helot Revolt videos from 1991-93 and posted them on YouTube, it was time to record this new LGBTQ heavy metal anthem.

Released Friday June 7, 2024

Born in a Barn Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album cover
Born in a Barn (OST) (2024)
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These tracks were recorded in August and September 2002 in NYC for the documentary film Born in a Barn, directed by Elizabeth Elson, released by Three Graces Films. It is an entirely electronic film score, recorded in my studio in my East Village fifth floor walkup. This was my second feature-length film score project.

21 Tracks 77:32

Released Friday Jan 26, 2024

Next World Sound Series Volume 2, 2xLP Album Cover
Next World Sound Series Volume 2 (2023)
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This beautiful 2xLP compilation album from Hyperspace Communications Records includes Jack Curtis Dubowsky's majestic "Bolsa Chica Surf," 30:31 in length, filling an entire side. "Bolsa Chica Surf" is also available on the Bolsa Chica Calm album.

Next World Sound Series is a collection of work by contemporary sound artists working in long form instrumental composition and translated to the tangible medium of vinyl. These modern day offerings capture the analog quality and experience of last century electronic recordings, presented to you with today's technological advances in home playback, for your environmental listening pleasure. Featuring LX Rudis, Jack Curtis Dubowsky, GataTECH, and Krispy Kat Whack.

Log Off Now Album Cover
Log Off Now (2023)
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Songs about identity,
purpose,
internet addiction,
social media.
Instrumental versions.
 
Released May 5, 2023
 

Halloween Horror Album Cover
Halloween Horror (2022)
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Spooky sonic journeys.
Storytelling.
Eerie instrumentals.
Dark pop.
Off-kilter, cryptic beats.
Not just for Halloween.
Featuring Kevin Dunn on guitars!

Released Friday October 14, 2022

Bolsa Chica Calm Album Cover
Bolsa Chica Calm (2022)
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Dubowsky writes:
As a surfer, composer, and historian of easy listening, I combined some of my interests and put them into musical practice in making this album. Bolsa Chica Calm references ambient, environmental, new age, and experimental music, from vaporwave to Wendy Carlos' Sonic Seasonings. It was informed by my research in writing my second book, Easy Listening and Film Scoring 1948-78, with two extended, midcentury-inspired meditations with real strings, winds, piano, analog synthesizers, and field recordings. I started working on Bolsa Chica Calm in 2017; it became a pandemic project. I worked on it at home, using remote recording sessions to record flute and strings.
Composed, arranged, produced by Jack Curtis Dubowsky. Surf recorded at Bolsa Chica State Beach. Rain recorded thru window air conditioner. Dubowsky: piano, guitar, JP-6, JX-3P, electronics, programming. Charles Sharp: bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet.
Steven Arnold Heavenly Bodies Album Cover
Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies (2019)
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Taken from over 70 hours of original and archival footage, Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies explores the life, times, and vast artistic output of late American multimedia artist, photographer, and filmmaker Steven Arnold. From his unconventional childhood, through his apprenticeship with Salvador Dali and his untimely death, the film traces Arnold's contributions through his drawings, paintings, makeup design, poster art, films, set design, and exotic tableau photography, weaving an informative, inspiring tapestry of fearless self-expression, undying creativity, and endless inspiration.

Flaunt wrote, "The opening strings of 'Aftermath of the Sixties' seems like it would set the scene of a romantic, albeit, tragic ballet — think Romeo and Juliet or Swan Lake. However, not even 30 seconds in, the piece diverges, sounding almost as though it has been warped in a time machine expediting it to narrate the life of Steven Arnold." (Hannah R. Jackson, July 19, 2019)

JCDE ZORRO 2017
Zorro (2017)
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ZORRO documents themes and highlights from the Ensemble's live score to The Mark of Zorro (1920) starring Douglas Fairbanks. The score nimbly navigates quick cutting action and drama while fleshing out political and social overtones underlying the swashbuckling adventure.

ZORRO is performed by composer Jack Curtis Dubowsky (conductor), Alicia Byer (clarinet), R. Scott Dibble (piano), Angelo Metz (guitars), Slam Nobles (percussion), Jeff L. Schwartz (double bass) and Charles Sharp (bass clarinet, flute, cornet, electronics).

ZORRO was recorded by legendary engineer Earle Mankey known for his work with The Beach Boys, Elton John, Concrete Blond, Sparks and many more. The album was recorded live and mixed in two days by Mankey.

I Always Said Yes Orignal Soundtrack Cover
I Always Said Yes OST (2013)
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Instrumental music from the documentary, I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole, directed by Jim Tushinski.

In 1971, Wakefield Poole, a respected Broadway dancer and choreographer, had the audacity to put his real name above the title of his first film, a low-budget, gay erotic feature called Boys in the Sand. To make sure everyone knew about it, Poole advertised the film in the New York Times, creating a sensation. In an era when anyone making, promoting, or appearing in so-called "pornography" could be liable for prosecution and jail time, Poole was a remarkably open and honest gay filmmaker. He became internationally famous. His movies screened for years as examples of films that were artistic as well as explicit.

JCDE 3
Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble III (2011)
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In February 2010, while teaching at a music college in Minnesota, bandleader Dubowsky had surgery for a detached retina. (Cover photograph shows an old warehouse building in Lowertown St. Paul.) This album reflects an eye theme, tracks including "Retina," "Depth Perception," "Lattice Degeneration," "Night Vision," "Pupil," and "Iris."

The Long Beach Post described Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble III as "an experimental collection of tracks that are likely to take the listener to a rarely-visited psychedelic state of mind... the sometimes-structured, sometimes-abstract free-form instrumentals and electronic sounds transcend traditional musical boundaries and require an open mind and an appreciation for creative exploration."
Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble II
Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble II (2010)
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The second JCDE album added Hall N. Goff on trombone and electronics. JCDE supported the album with an East Coast Tour across five states.

New music blogger Grego Applegate Edwards wrote, "This is not music that is easily classified. I suppose you should think of it as electroacoustic music that draws on rock and jazz elements and resituates them into a highly singular new music matrix. This is slowly developing music that over time is quietly rewarding and without a doubt worth hearing."

LGCSF Halloween in the Castro
Halloween in the Castro Opera DVD (2009)
YouTube |

DVD. Out of print. (Watch full opera on YouTube.)
Sheet music for full opera available as a rental.

Merging local politics with murder and mayhem, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, under the direction of Stephanie Lynne Smith, presents Jack Curtis Dubowsky's horror opera Halloween in the Castro, a biting, in-your-face social commentary about what has gone wrong with Castro Halloween.

Horrors past and present haunt San Francisco's iconic street. As Halloween approaches, neighborhood residents, suburbanite tourists, city politicians and local business owners have conflicting ideas of how the evening should unfold. But will they all survive to see the dawn?

Halloween in the Castro is contemporary social commentary in the form of a traditional opera. Featuring an ensemble cast and an original score, the show educates, satirizes, and most of all, entertains.
Redwoods Original Soundtrack Cover
Redwoods (OST) (2009)
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Redwoods (2009) is a TLA / Funny Boy Films motion picture directed by David Lewis (Rock Haven), starring Matthew Montgomery (Socket, Long Term Relationship) and Brendan Bradley.

Original motion picture score by Jack Curtis Dubowsky.

The film won the 2009 Iris Prize for Best Feature at the Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales.
JCD Ensemble I Cover
Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble I (2008)
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The debut JCDE album. After a long series of bands and musical projects, Dubowsky decided it was time to perform and release music under his own name, especially as the music increasingly intersected contemporary classical, electroacoustic, and new music spheres.

San Francisco Classical Voice wrote, "The ensemble's music can be described as free-form and transcendental; it's recorded live, without overdubs or sequencing. While comparisons of this sort are often odious, I might think of it as "the Philip Glass Ensemble meets John Zorn," with a healthy dose of Ornette Coleman thrown in for good measure." (Brian Gleeson, August 21, 2009)
Rock Haven cover
Rock Haven (OST) (2007)
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Brady, an 18-year-old devout Christian, is tested when he and his mother move to a scenic Northern California coastal town where he falls in love with his new neighbor Clifford. There to spread the good word, Brady instead becomes hopelessly attracted to this handsome young man who is the complete opposite of him: vivacious and athletic. LGBTQ, Drama, TLA Releasing.

Original motion picture score by Jack Curtis Dubowsky.
That Man Peter Berlin Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
That Man: Peter Berlin (OST) (2005)
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This intimate film reveals the legendary man with the white saran wrapped pants, undersized leather vests, and Dutch-boy haircut who is the iconic Peter Berlin. Directed by Jim Tushinski, featuring Armistead Maupin and John Waters.

Photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol, drawn by Tom of Finland, and lusted after by countless fans, Berlin was more than just a piece of eye candy. A talented artist, photographer, and filmmaker, he starred in two underground gay erotic classics from the early 1970s, "Nights in Black Leather" and "That Boy," which he also directed. But he was his own biggest creation, a carefully constructed, unattainable icon awash in eroticism.

Original motion picture score by Jack Curtis Dubowsky.
Glen Meadmore produced by Jack Curtis Dubowsky
Glen Meadmore
Hot Horny and Born Again (1993)

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Sound recording owned by De Stijl Music.

Producer Jack Curtis Dubowsky was a huge fan of Glen's, and even go-go danced with the band at a performance at Woody's Hyperion in Silverlake. ("That's when we met," says Glen.) Dubowsky would produce Glen's next album, working to improve the musicianship and performances.

Says Dubowsky, "Boned was really raw and shrill and didn't really do justice to the band. I wanted to help Glen make an album that was in tune, in time, and really tight and punchy, and to take Glen to the next level."

Hot Horny & Born Again was recorded and mixed in San Francisco in 1993. Dubowsky brought bales of hay into Hyde Street Studio A for the recording, much to the consternation of the studio owner.
Helot Revolt CD Cover
Helot Revolt
In Your Face / Up Your Butt (1992)

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DS 301, Four-track CD. Helot Revolt grabbed national attention in 1991 with a combination of music, sexuality, performance art, activism, and spectacular live shows. Music press praised In Your Face / Up Your Butt (1992) in RIP, BAM, Details, Billboard, as well as in queer zines. Helot Revolt coincided with homocore and queercore movements, but had its own unique, polished, metal sound.

For live shows, Jack assembled a performance art troupe that played benefit shows for ACT UP, Queer Nation, City of Angels Hospice, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Helot Revolt shows were spectacular extravaganzas with slide projectors, tape machines, costumes, dancers, and sing-alongs.

Alex Meconi directed a rockumentary about the band: Helot Revolt the World's Greatest Faggot Heavy Metal Band or They Were Out of Bette Davis so I Got This (1993, 27 min.). It screened in San Francisco and at festivals from Honolulu to Melbourne, Australia.

Duchampians 12
Duchampians
In The Guise of Love 12" (1991)

Discogs |

DS 201-12. 12" single on clear vinyl.

Dubowsky produced and co-wrote the Duchampians 12" single "In the Guise of Love," co-written with architect Eric Kahn.
Diazepam Nights CD
Diazepam Nights (1989)
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DS 101, the first official De Stijl release. Cash Box Magazine described Diazepam Nights:
This first offering from the L.A.-based indie label is a moody, introspective affair about longing and heartbreak… Couched between facile observation and cliché is true insight. Side by side with adolescent stabs at poetry is the real thing… The production is crisp, easily standing toe to toe with anything coming from the majors, and the main impression left is that this is an outfit overflowing with promise. There is a lot of talent here, it simply needs to be reigned in and given sharper focus. (Ernest Hardy, Cash Box Magazine, p.18, March 24, 1990)
Jim Fouratt wrote in Bay Area Reporter:
Jack Curtis Dubowsky stakes his claim as his queer generation's musical Orson Welles. Here the coming-out persona is post-Bowie (the Low period) and post-Eno (the music-for-airports era), adrift in a wall-broken Berlin soundscape. (Bay Area Reporter, p.29, January 9, 1992)