Cool Hunting

A collaboration between brothers Matt and Justin Kleiner, the Protist is a music, art and design hybrid based out of Santa Barbara. Their latest project is a series of paintings that are meant to correspond with a soundtrack of original compositions. Images take traditional Japanese archetypes and couple them with more contemporary graphics and word fragments. Songs are brooding electronic soundscapes that take cues from electronic acts like Modeselektor and more recent Radiohead, a band who's song "Reckoner" they remix for the project.

The project's conceptual underpinnings use nature to illustrate different cycles, like life and death, or night and day. Following the same theme, the music tends to vacillate between lighter and darker moods.

You can view paintings and listen to the corresponding music on the Protist's website. Music, the clothing and other merchandise (also of their design) is available as well.