Anthony Dickenson Paints Time in Motion for Rival Consoles’ 'Soft Gradient Beckons'

​1stAveMachine director Anthony Dickenson has directed a hand painted film for electronic musician Rival Consoles’ new track Soft Gradient Beckons’.

Made entirely from hand-painted monoprints, the film is a frame-by-frame animation created over several months. Each frame was transferred onto tracing paper, building a rhythmic visual language that mirrors the emotional shifts in the track. The result is a meditative, analogue response to an electronic composition—blurring the line between moving image and fine art.

What began as a personal experiment evolved into a large-scale installation: 11 painted rolls, each 20 metres long, laid out in sequence to reveal the full timeline of the piece. A total of over 5000 frames painted. The film’s quiet pulse and slow unfolding invite the viewer into a space where rhythm, decay, and memory take on physical form.

Director Anthony Dickenson said, “The process became its own kind of ritual. Painting each frame by hand over months gave me space to reflect. The piece grew out of a changing period in my life, and somehow it absorbed that energy. It became less about animation, and more about presence.”

'Soft Gradient Beckons,' is out now on Erased Tapes Records.