Mississippi Joe Callicott (1899 – 1969)

Callicott was not your typical North Mississippi blues musician. Musicians from the hill country tend to vamp on a few chords, focusing on a droning, almost hypnotic sound; Callicott was a fingerpicker in the vein of a Piedmont guitarist, with a dash of Jimmie Rodgers. He recorded three songs independently in 1929 and 1930: “Fare Thee Well Blues,” “Traveling Mama,” and “Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues”, the last of which went unreleased. Two additional tracks were recorded with Garfield Akers, the “Cottonfield Blues” — and here, his finger picking is energetic and nimble, bordering on aggressive.¹

After the 1930 session, he went unrecorded for 37 years. He was not totally forgotten, however, as his songs started to appear in anthologies of Delta Blues. He was eventually found in Nesbit, Mississippi by George Mitchell, who recorded several songs with him in August 1967. These became the basis for a number of records and re-releases, the best of which was probably Fat Possum’s Ain’t a Gonna Lie to You. Unfortunately, his guitar playing had diminished somewhat by this time, but his voice had matured beautifully. His singing on “Frankie and Albert” is expressive and full of sadness yet was beautiful and nuanced throughout. After these sessions, he recorded several songs for Blue Horizons which were a bit lower-quality and rougher. He died in 1969 and was only recently given a proper headstone.

Purchase Mississippi Joe Callicott Albums On Amazon

Mississippi Joe Callicott – “Cottonfield Blues” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Mississippi Joe Callicott – “Frankie And Albert” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil (1936 – 2001)

Fred Neil was a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk scene and was regarded as a mentor figure by many of the more-famed musicians who came up during that time. He grew up in Florida and worked as a songwriter, which included tracks like “Come Back Baby” for Buddy Holly and “Candy Man” for Roy Orbison. He was an idiosyncratic figure, often frustratingly difficult to get to a gig or recording studio and suspicious of fame. But a number of famous musicians played with Neil, including Bob Dylan, David Crosby, John Sebastian and Stephen Stills.²

Neil stuck to a six-string guitar and was best known for his bass voice. He recorded five studio albums that have been released, of which Fred Neil is regarded as the best. Fred Neil carries his most famous composition, “Everybody’s Talkin’” which was famously covered by Harry Nilsson for the movie Midnight Cowboy. “The Dolphins” is another famous song off of this album and reveals Neil’s interest in dolphins, to which he devoted nearly thirty years of his time. His 1965 classic, entitled Bleecker and MacDougal features another popular composition, “Blues on the Ceiling”. Friends of Neil’s have revealed that he recorded several more albums during the 1970s which have yet to be released.³ He stopped recording in the ’70s and his last gig was in 1981 in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Purchase Fred Neil Albums on Amazon

Fred Neil – “Candy Man” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil – “Everybody’s Talkin’” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil – “The Dolphins” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Bix Beiderbecke (1903 – 1931)

Beiderbecke was a true rarity in the 1920s: a white and very successful Jazz musician who was held in high esteem by black musicians, many of whom were victims of discrimination. For that matter, he managed to create his own unique style of cornet playing, a considerable feat for any musician living in the shadow of Louis Armstrong. Legends surround Beiderbecke today, making it difficult to dispel myth from fact. He was born in Davenport, Iowa and musically interested from a young age. He apparently taught himself the cornet from listening to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band records and would sneak down to listen to bands playing on the riverboats, where he purportedly met Louis Armstrong.

Beiderbecke’s family was conservative but unable to rein him in, and he eventually ended up in Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. His playing was less bluesy and forceful than Armstrong’s, and many of his recordings come across as restrained and cool rather than hot. His most famous songs were “Singin’ the Blues,” recorded in 1927, and “Georgia On My Mind”, recorded just days before his death. Beiderbecke drank heavily and his health worsened over a few short years. In the 1970s, a sign of this alcoholism was found; an intern at NBC was going through the sheet music of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and discovered a note written by the third trumpet at the solo, which said, “Wake up Bix”.⁴ After finally being kicked out of the Whiteman Orchestra in 1930, Beiderbecke died the following summer of lobar pneumonia, which was undoubtedly exacerbated by alcoholism. Years later, Miles Davis would interview people who had known Beiderbecke as he tried to capture his style.⁵

Purchase Bix Beiderbecke Albums on Amazon

Bix Biederbecke, Frank Trumbauer, and Jack Teagarden – “At The Jazz Ball” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Frank Trumbauer & His Orchestra Featuring Bix Biederbecke – “Singin’ The Blues” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman (1909 – 1980)

Oscar Aleman has recently bounced back into the mainstream after one of his songs was used in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris; nevertheless, he remains sorely underappreciated. Born in Argentina, he began playing music at an early age and went to Europe in 1929. He was hired by Josephine Baker to play in her band in Paris and spent the next several years in France. During this time, he befriended the gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. The two were so closely associated that Aleman often served as a backup whenever Django couldn’t be found by his bandmates, which apparently was a frequent occurrence. Tragically, despite their friendship, the two never recorded together. Aleman returned to Argentina during WWII and spent the remainder of his life there.

Aleman gets compared to Reinhardt frequently, but aside from their shared technical proficiency, the two were very different musicians. Aleman played in a wide variety of styles and brought a great many Latin techniques and styles into the recording studio. Even his South American influences were diverse, though, as his recordings included a Brazilian-influenced album of standards. He recorded prolifically, though American listeners may find it difficult to find hard copies of his music. A number of overlapping compilations are available, the best of which is Swing Guitar Masterpieces, 1938-1957. For starting tracks, I would suggest “Russian Lullaby”, “Darktown Strutters Ball”, and “Improvisaciones Sobre Boogie Woogie”.⁶

Purchase Oscar Aleman Albums on Amazon

Oscar Aleman – “Darktown Strutters Ball” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman – “Russian Lullaby” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman – “Improvisaciones Sobre Boogie Woogie” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Karen Dalton (1937 – 1993)

Everybody seems to agree that Karen Dalton was a “white Billie Holiday”, as I’ve seen on several forums and blogs. I hesitate to compare artists too much as I think it runs the risk of cheapening what makes one unique, but with these two, there are some apt comparisons to be made. Both had powerful voices with a relatively narrow range and a lot of expressiveness. Both also led hard lives marred by alcoholism and personal misfortunes. Karen Dalton was born in Enid, Oklahoma and had already been married twice by 21. She became part of the burgeoning Greenwich Village Folk Scene and spent time between New York and Colorado. Two albums were recorded before she faded into obscurity — one in 1969 and one in 1971. She died in 1993 from complications with AIDS.

Dalton has begun to enjoy a revival in recent years as previously unreleased fan-recordings and live concerts have made their way into the hands of record companies. The album I recommend to start out with isn’t one of her studio albums but Cotton Eyed Joe, a live album from 1962. She alternated between banjo and the twelve-string guitar while she sang, and this particular recording showcases this.⁷ The sound quality is also remarkably good, though not too good; at any given moment, you can tell she’s playing in a small folk club, which, for me, enhances the experience. Start with “It Hurts Me Too”, for her version has become the definitive one for that standard. “One May Morning” is another beautiful track that deserves your attention.

Purchase Karen Dalton Albums on Amazon

Karen Dalton – “It Hurts Me Too” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Karen Dalton – “One May Morning” – DOWNLOAD MP3

References
¹ Mississippi Joe Callicott Mississippi Blues Trail.
² Fred Neil: The Other Side Of Greenwich Village 60′s Folk Scene, Perfect Sound Forever.
³ Ric O’Barry, Fred Neil.
⁴ Wake Up Bix, mlkshk.
⁵ Bix Beiderbecke played with lyric beauty and had a different influence than Louis Armstrong., Jazz-Music-History.
⁶ Oscar Alemán: El Increible Swing, Classic Jazz Guitar.
⁷ In Her Own Time: The return of Karen Dalton, Austin Chronicle.

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Forgotten Gems & Dusty Classics: Mississippi Joe Callicott, Fred Neil, Bix Beiderbecke, Oscar Aleman, Karen Dalton

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY MASTERS; ABOVE ARTWORK BY EMILY FRASER

Evan Caminiti

“Fading Dawn” from Dreamless Sleep

Barn Owl

“Void Redux” from V

Barn Owl’s music has a way of slowing down attention, slowing down one’s perception of time. Meditation produces a similar result. What are your intentions with putting music out into the world? Are they aligned with such qualities?

Evan Caminiti: I approach music less conceptually than I once did and rely more on intuition and daily practice, embracing the strong moments of improvisation rather than trying over and over again to execute an idea based on concepts that don’t resonate viscerally. Having a specific vision and knowing what we want to hear is crucial; I would say we always make the kind of music we would to listen to. I think slow music, deep music that taps into something beyond just entertainment, music that engages your body and mind in an all encompassing way — that is really valuable and crucial. Personally, it is a major part of my well-being, and I hope through releasing music that it does the same for others. I find it to have a grounding effect, both energizing and calming.

Barn Owl Band Interview (cont’d)

What does meditation mean to you, and when did you first encounter the idea? Do meditative states influence the creation or consumption of your music?

Evan Caminiti: For me, music comes first and the meditative benefits are one part of it. Long duration music really introduced me to meditation in some strange form. Raga, especially the slowly shifting styles of Dhrupad and Pandit Pran Nath, and the music of La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, and Pauline Oliveros, were important in that they allowed me to literally hear musically differently. Before getting into all of these artists, I experienced the powerful live sets of Sunn O))) and Om, which primed me for the transcendental philosophies these [other] artists have explored for decades.

Meditation produces a slippery sense of self, when you cease to identify your thoughts. Can you speak about the self and how it effects your creativity?

Evan Caminiti: The ability to dissolve the ego and allow performers and audience alike to slip into a trance state is one of the most amazing and rewarding things about music. It’s the moments where we’re open where we can leave the self behind and become fully absorbed with the music; there we can become part of the continuum of inspiration and influence.

There are some studies about the ability to induce deep trance states (theta and delta states) by listening to tones (binaural beats). Theta states are also brought on by simple, repetitive tasks, and these states are attributed by artists and scientists as responsible for inspiration and clear insight. What are some things you do to clear your mind and allow for inspiration to occur?

Evan Caminiti: Having a comfortable environment at home is really helpful in creating the right environment for inspiration and insight. Surrounding myself with positive influences and creating an altar-like space in my home studio is essential.

BARN OWL INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Meditation emphasizes letting things arise, and letting thing go, without clutching or attachment. I have always found improvised music very similar to this. How do you compare the process of recording, versus just playing music in the moment?

Evan Caminiti: Improvisation and recording are inseparable. I was talking to a friend the other night. He brought up a quote; I think it was something Mark Hollis said. It went something like, “The first time you play something it is at its peak.” That philosophy makes a lot of sense to me because I’ve found over the years that improvisations and first takes can possess this vital essence driven by pure expression which is impossible to attain when something that is contrived. The catch is knowing how to improvise without wanking or noodling and knowing how to edit improvised recordings down to the essential parts. Furthermore, not being afraid to edit the recordings and shape them into something new. This approach where improvisation, composition, and production are equal is really exciting to me.

Hardcore practitioners of meditation often advocate material renunciation. What is your take on creature comforts versus ascetic living? Materialism is to a degree necessary in the music industry; how, if at all, does that dialogue affect your creative process?

Evan Caminiti: I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with my modular synthesizer. I get endless hours of joy and inspiration out of the synth; it’s also essential in a practical way as a working musician, so yeah materialism is necessary. Like collecting records, there is no substitute for vinyl, but they take up a lot of space. We all have our creature comforts but I keep things really minimal; my small apartment certainly helps with that. As far as effecting the creative process, I look at the limitations of a small space and the fact that I can’t afford a really elaborate setup as a good thing. There was an interesting piece by Mark Fell in a recent issue of the Wire that discusses how limitations lead to innovation. The less you have, the more you’ll get out of what you’re working with and it can produce unique and personal results.

You recently played at the SF Zen Center. Can you describe how this came about and what the experience was like? Have you and do you wish to do more things like this in the future?

Evan Caminiti: This experience was thanks to Jennifer Mearz, a writer for the Bold Italic here in SF. The experience was great, totally unique. One of the most amazing things was reading the blog of one of the Zen Center’s residents, who happens to be deaf. In detail, this individual described the physical sensations of our set, the way vibrations moved from the heart to the belly, all over. It sounded like a very multi-dimensional experience. The physical aspects of our music is a key element, something people may miss out on if only listening at home and not coming out to shows. That being said, the PA we used that night was actually very small so we weren’t half as loud as we like to be. So yes, doing more things like this in the future would be great, but we would want to make sure the PA is powerful enough so we can give everyone the best experience possible. Good sound systems are becoming increasingly important to us now that we’re playing so many electronics live; we’ve really wreaked havoc on some inadequate systems.

Your latest record is much more electronic than your previous outputs. How did this shift come about? Do you think that the shift between analog versus digital changes the meditative atmosphere at all?

Evan Caminiti: We’ve always used both analog and digital instruments. There are more digital elements on this record, but you know, almost all the synths were analog, we used a bunch of tube amps; there is just no substitute for these things. This shift came about because of the desire to expand our techniques and try new things. We just weren’t inspired to create a record structured around the guitar as the primary instrument. We’ve made a lot of albums that took that approach already. We have always been drawn to a hands on approach so we gravitated towards synthesizers that allow the user to sculpt the sound from the ground up. Your options open exponentially when you move from the setup of guitar, pedals, amplifier, on to synthesizers — massive octave range, full control over the stereo field, a vast array of timbres… it goes on. I love guitars, but it’s refreshing and inspiring to work with something so open; it’s like a blank slate.

Do you have particular records that you use as a tool for getting into a meditative zone? Are there any positive or negative experiences of note stemming from meditative states in your life?

Evan Caminiti: I listen to Alice Coltrane’s devotional tapes pretty often, and in situations like being a plane, where I’m feeling on edge, those songs have an amazing calming and empowering effect. On the opposite side of things, I’ve certainly been in situations where I get on the bus after a long improv session or a deep listening [session] and I’m just not ready to deal with all the chaos of the day-to-day BS after been in such a deep zone. It’s like crossing a barrier and you then have to re-acclimate to the outside world.

Ω

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Barn Owl Band Interview: A Bilateral Reflection On Meditative States

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TANYA TRABOULSI

Sonic City 2012 – Jerusalem in my heart from De Kreun on Vimeo.

Multidisciplinary Relevance

Furthermore, Jerusalem In My Heart do not perform in bars, but prefer artistic spaces that are well-acquainted with installation art and the benefits of transforming space over an extended period of time. All 16mm images created, filmed, and edited by Salazar are made to bounce off of walls in a way that highlights, in Moumneh’s words, the fact that they “use the wallspace itself as part of the visuals.”

Moumneh goes on to describe the aesthetic, saying, “It is this super fragmented, cut-up visual where you are not really looking at one flat surface, because it’s multi-dimensional. There is no one spot to stand and look; it sort of forces you to use all of your senses to understand the environment you are in.”

This spatially-shapeshifting approach naturally creates a ever-evolving project. Some nights, the trio uses eight screens; some nights, adaptation dictates that only two projectors are appropriate for the venue. Nonetheless, the music always stays more or less the same. Although the composed pieces see slight improvisation, they generally stay faithful to the recordings on Mo7it Al-Mo7it.

“It is very much the same music, but in presenting it with the visuals, it becomes very different because the two are so married,” Moumneh explains. “It is not like visuals that accompany music or music that accompanies visuals. It is co-composed together, or co-created together.”

Up until recently, JIMH have primarily performed in their hometown of Montreal, Quebec. But when touring finally became a legitimate reality, their dedication to performance spaces took on a whole new meaning and set of challenges. At home, JIMH often had the better part of the day to configure and arrange their equipment. On tour, they discovered they needed to figure out how to setup quickly while still maintaining the spirit of the project.

“You quickly realize that if you are given the time to think about something, you will think about it,” Moumneh says. “If you are given four days, then you will use four days. But if you are given four hours, you will use four hours and still come up with something.”

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Jerusalem In My Heart Band Interview: Shape-Shifting Multidisciplinary & Multicultural Appeal

Brian Eno X Nicolas Jaar X Grizzly Bear

As far as superstar collaborations go, this year’s Brian Eno X Nicolas Jaar X Grizzly Bear 12″ is as exciting as they get. Not only do the three artists bridge decades worth of musical output in their own right, their creativity and collective mastery has surely inspires countless others. This Warp Records package finds Jaar remixing Brian Eno’s “Lux 2″ and Grizzly Bear’s “Sleeping Ute.” All 2,000 of these 12″ double A-sides should go quick, as this is no doubt one of the most anticipated releases of the event.

VINYL INFORMATION
Designed and printed by Edwin Pickstone & Ivor Williams on a FAG Control 525 Swiss-built semi-automatic cylinder proofing press in Glasgow. Type was a mix of 35 line sans condensed and 50 lined grotesque super-condensed and was left 80% black, deliberately broken print to echo the sentiment of remixes carrying the remnants of the original.

Cut Copy

Before the release of In Ghost Colours in 2008, the thought that Australian electro poppers Cut Copy would soon become a transcendent and influential dance act seemed impossible. It was only their second record in four years, and their debut Bright Like Neon Love was a faded memory, only ever charting in their native country. But it was a critical darling of sorts, heralded as something akin to Daft Punk, The Human League and New Order. And while Record Store Day won’t propel Bright Like Neon Love to soaring sales numbers, this year’s reissue of the 2004 record will hopefully cement the album’s legacy to a newer generation almost a decade later. 4,000 of these 12″ long players will be pressed and released by Modular.

Tame Impala

Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker burst onto the scene in 2010 with it’s crunchy, psychedelic guitar work and overall retro tinted sound. Bold but not overstated, Innerspeaker re-established proper rock ‘n roll in a lot of ways for the coming decade. But in 2008, the band’s self-titled EP was really what set the group on this path. While it maybe doesn’t have the bravado and polish of Innerspeaker, or last year’s Lonerism, the Tame Impala EP does feature a great deal more for diehard fans who originally missed this record. Modular will release 5,000 of these 12″ records, all pressed to red vinyl.

Sly and the Family Stone

Few song are as magnetic, triumphant and overwhelming as Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher.” It was music for music’s sake, a celebration through horns, harmonica and bursting vocals about the power of music. Though it was originally a b-side for group’s “Stand!” 12″, “I Want to Take You Higher” went on to become a Top 40 itself. This Record Store Day exclusive features a rare Mono master of “Higher” along with an special, never before released medley produced solely for the Merv Griffin Show. Legacy Records will put out 3,000 of these 10″ packages.

El Michels Affair

When I first heard about El Michels Affair and what they were setting out to accomplish on Enter the 37th Chamber, I couldn’t help but be immediately attracted to the project. If it wasn’t obvious from the title, Enter the 37th Chamber is a riff on Wu-Tang Clan’s classic debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). What makes El Michels Affair’s take different is the group’s ability to blend classic orchestration and soulful rhythm into a unique experience completely removed from the original yet still acting as a loving recreation. Record Store Day see Fat Beats releasing Enter The 37th Chamber as a picture disk, limited to 1,000 copies.

Ty Segall

Because Ty Segall certainly doesn’t have enough music to keep himself busy (sarcasm), the bay area garage rocker will release another new EP on Record Store Day. 2011 brought the Ty Rex EP, a collection of T. Rex covers, and in 2012 Segall continues the series with Ty Rex 2, a 7″ featuring covers of “Cat Black” and “The Motivator.” The 1,500 copies will be released through Segall’s longtime partner, and original proprietors of Ty Rex, Goner Records.

Orange Juice

As springtime slowly arrives, the sun peaking out and people steadily creep out from the holes they have been hiding in all winter, it’s music like Orange Juice’s Rip It Up that I immediately blast from car stereos, putting a smile not only on myself but hopefully those around me too. It’s energetic, hook-laden 80′s music that doesn’t take itself too seriously, the kind of music that existed for too brief a period. If you missed Rip It Up when Domino reissued it last year as part of a box set, now’s the perfect time to find one of the 750 copies.

Sonny And The Sunsets

For as much reverence as Sonny Smith has for classic rock ‘n roll and the influences which have shaped his music, it’s astounding how strange he often gets in accordance to those. Look no further than the art for this cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a mere Photoshop of Smith’s face in place of Lennon’s original. It’s funny and possibly a little off color, but most importantly it’s exactly what I would expect from Smith. Polyvinyl will release this brilliant 7″, limited to 800 copies.

GZA

Trying to encapsulate the energy and gusto of GZA’s Liquid Swords in a few sentence paragraph is a fool’s errand. From “Duel of the Iron Mic,” one of my favorite hip-hop tracks of all time, to Inspectah Deck’s performance on “Cold World,” Liquid Swords remains in the pantheon of great rap records. On Record Store Day, Get on Down will release Liquid Swords as a 4 LP package complete with instrumentals, liner notes and a playable chess set. With only 750 copies pressed, this might be the most hard to find release during this year’s Record Store Day.

Burger Records

In the past few years, the growing buzz around Fullerton, California label Burger Records has really turned into more of a roar. From their limited edition cassette releases of oddball grunge rockers to their astounding packaging and social interaction, Burger is the epitome of what a little luck and a lot of hard work and dedication can create in this ever shifting industry. Limited to 250 cassettes, The Taste of Burger Records is the label’s first proper compilation.

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Record Store Day 2013: Recommended Releases

Maria Minerva
Bless EP
100% Silk (2013)

On her website, Maria Minerva (née Juur) tells us that once she left home, it was easy to do it again. Indeed, for her, home is wherever she lays her head and finds a wifi password. This impermanence and transience hovers above her music like a ghost, belied by the Euro disco and dance pop stylings that she deploys. It is this combination, of the fugitive and the substantial, of the common and the uncommon, that gives her music both its reach and dynamism.

Born in Estonia, the tiny northeastern European state hemmed in by the cold waters of the Baltic and Russia, in 1988, Juur’s creativity is clearly shaped, in part, by her early experiences in the dying days of the Soviet Union. Growing up on a “model” Soviet-era concrete suburb, her web biography recalls heavy Russian influences, hated trolley buses, shitty TV, lycra, and, crucially, badly-produced 1990s Euro disco.

Juur’s music harnesses the melodic imagery of Euro disco, with its relentlessly vacuous tunes and dry upbeat rhythms, and subtly distorts and disconnects it before combining the result with sly vocal dissonance. In this way, her music deliberately inhabits a hinterland that is between destinations, using this to powerful artistic effect.

The stand out track on the EP, “Black Magick”, with its deadpan and detuned vocals delivered atop the aforementioned awkward melodic imagery, typifies the knowingly innocent, alienated and strangely plaintive attitude of the female protagonist present in all these songs. As this track evolves, the lyrics cleverly mutate, from an opening few lines that could be found in any mainstream pop song, via subtle shifts of stance and ground, to a scenario and meaning that is darker and more complex in nature.

MARIA MINERVA – BLESS EP ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Allied to her relationship with the land of her past, there is also an undoubted arts and academic context to Maria Minerva’s music, with her background at Goldsmiths College in London. In her earlier album, Cabaret Cixous, her reference to Hélène Cixous, the feminist philosopher and author of “The Laugh of the Medusa”, sheds a light on her interest in feminist philosophy and literary criticism. This framework is perhaps also reflected in her decision to adopt the nomme de guerre Minerva (but that’s a whole other can of worms). (Editor’s note: See extended info panel below for expansion on the content in this paragraph.)

Juur is constantly moving forwards. Her career in music only began in 2011 when she signed to the renowned L.A.-based label Not Not Fun. Since then, there have been a string of releases and an extensive itinerary of tours across Europe, the USA, and Australia, including an appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Now based permanently in America and in pursuit of a green card, she is involved with the esteemed UCB Theatre, whose stellar alumni includes Robin Williams and Tina Fey.

Strangely though, for an artist who has embraced the USA, it is within the European literary and philosophical traditions that Juur’s work seems to find its home. It is perhaps at odds with the philosophical outlook of her music, but I find echoes in her output of that other great émigré of forgetting, whose work in literature relied on displacement, exile and connection, Milan Kundera.

This is a great EP full of that strange but effective hybridized music the New York Times called “dance pop made sallow and creepy”. It is dark and dirty and laced with a sleepy sexiness that is made all the more disturbing because of the sweetness and innocence that also pervades. Maria Minerva is destined for greatness.

Exploring Maria Minerva’s Artistic Framework
Via The Feminist Philosophy Of Hélène Cixous
& The Greek Mythology Of Minerva And Medusa

 

There is undoubtedly an artistic and indeed literary framework to the music of Maria Minerva/Juur, and this is to be found in many aspects of her oeuvre. As a graduate of Goldsmiths College in London, her output reflects an interest in the work of Hélène Cixous, the French feminist writer, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. The feminist context is clear, but perhaps Minerva/Juur sees a kinship with Cixous, not only as a woman struggling against a world where, as Cixous says, an apartheid exists and women are the dark heart, but also as an émigré. The “belonging constituted of exclusion and nonbelonging” that Cixous and Derrida — both French Jews in Algeria — experienced, is perhaps also experienced by Juur. Juur, who grew up in an area of her country that was affected by a heavy Russian influence, may have been alienated by the impact of this ruling foreign occupier who sought to change both the landscape and the culture of her homeland. It is possible that the Russification of Estonia is where the dislocation that led Juur to moving from place to place, finding a home wherever her head could lay, began.

Hélène Cixous

Read “The Laugh of the Medusa”

Purchase “The Laugh of the Medusa” on Amazon

Minerva

In her major essay, “The Laugh of the Medusa”, Cixous offers a kind of manifesto to disempowered womanhood, calling them to create a new paradigm of writing, an “écriture féminine” — a paradigm that could equally apply to other forms of creativity. Cixous celebrates the differences and “infinite richness” of the individual female constitutions and the unclassifiable nature of female sexuality. For Cixous “women’s imaginary is inexhaustible”, however, she states, this great font of unbounded creativity is suppressed, carried out furtively and in small measure, guiltily, like masturbation, subject to the obsequious relayers of imperative laid down by an economy that works against womanhood. In the work of Juur we find, perhaps, a knowing take on that furtive and guilty secret in the innocent voice that is shot through with sleazy and suggestive sleepiness. Juur has, after all, responded to the call but in a manner only possibly in the early Twenty First Century, some thirty eight years after Laugh of the Medusa was written.

Juur’s choice of name, Minerva, and the interplay between the characters of the myths of Medusa and Minerva is significant. Medusa was a beautiful and much-desired young woman with magnificent long hair. The youngest of the three daughters of those titans of the sea, Phorcys and Ceto, she was the most beautiful but also the only one to be mortal. These three sisters, Medusa, Stheno and Euryale, were said to have great wisdom and served as priestesses to the virgin goddess of wisdom, Athena.

Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, magic and the arts and defense. The connection between Minerva and Medusa is one of mutating history and co-option, with the Roman’s equating Minerva with Athena. According to the late version of the myth by Ovid, Athena is the goddess who, on witnessing the rape of Medusa by Poseidon, punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into snakes and making her face so ugly it would turn those who looked at it to stone. In this version of the myth, the victim is the transgressor and, in the eyes of Perseus, is rightly punished by Minerva (Athena). Perseus then beheads the mortal Medusa.

Juur appears to be inverting the narrative imagery evoked by Cixous, deliberately and ironically placing herself on the side of the goddess who judged and then harshly punished the innocent victim of rape, the mortal woman that was Medusa. In doing this, she throws the dialogue into sharper relief, defining, perhaps even more clearly, through her clever and imaginative use of the the idiom, the current and ongoing plight of womanhood. For Cixous “woman’s imaginary is inexhaustible” (sic), “their stream of phantasms is incredible”. Through her persona Minerva, Juur has not only absorbed and acknowledged this tradition, but reinterpreted it for the difficult and dangerously ambiguous times in which we live.

Ω

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1. South Central – The Owl of Minerva Album Review
2. Fat White Family – Champagne Holocaust Album Review & Artistic Philosophy Q&A
3. Top Pops! March 2013: Olafur Arnalds, Generationals, Kisses, Dutch Uncles, More

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¹ Flan
² “$3 coconut cube cake” aka an Australian Lamington; National Lamington Day is July 20th

³ Nookies from Torchy’s Tacos

RE: SNAXXX

Rachel: I feel like food and air were the highlight of the whole trip for me. Michoacan had pupusas for $1.69 Gina of course also had a flan.¹
Vivian: I certainly do wish Portland had more Mexi-markets. My do I love FIESTA in Austin… LOVE THAT FIESTA. Hate that Mexican sweetbread though. Don’t get it.
Rachel: Hahahaha. Ate that. Funny ultimate food highs and lows.
Gina: I tried to save my flan for later. Had it in my backpack to eat between bands at the day party.
Rachel: Gross!!! Was it gross?
Gina: It was a little gross. Definitely starting to sweat.
Vivian: I thought you wrote, “Had it in my backpack to eat with hands at the day party” — which is way better.
Gina: Haha, I totes ate it anyway. But as it happens, flan and guac are about on par in terms of bad foods to tote in the heat.
Rachel: Yeah… but guac is non-dairy….
Gina: Oh true.
Rachel: I always bring food with me like a weirdo hobo fool. I brought like oatmeal and grapefruits.
Gina: We are just resourceful! All that’s downtown are artisan hybrid tacos.
Rachel: That made me feel crazy. $3 coconut cube cake.²
Vivian: Whuteva dude, mighta been the best thing ever.
Gina: Hahaha it’s true we’ll never KNOW!
Rachel: Stop making me regret my life!
Vivian: Could have known for $1 each, but noooo.
Rachel: You’ll never forgive us.
Gina: It’s okay we can learn!: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Lamingtons.html
Vivian: No, I will because you bought some deep-fried cookies at Torchy’s, but that’s the only reason.³ Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Gina: Oh yeah, those were amazing. Deep-fried cookie dough balls disguised as “cookies”. Called “nookies”.
Rachel: I had two more tacoments after you guys left. Sooooo goood.
Gina: Omigod there’s Lamingtons in Portland; we’re saved!
Rachel: FUCK YOU GUYS. That’s what I meant to write earlier when you told me you were having your meeting at an ice cream place.
Gina: Hahaha we got thwarted! We’re just at a coffee shop now. It started hailing which I deemed ice cream — prohibitive. Not without some debate, though.
Vivian: Alright so basically we went to Austin for food. Don’t know what that SXSW thing is.
Rachel: Yes! And weather.

RE: DAY PARTIES

⁴ Vans at Mohawk
⁵ Disclosure

⁶ Charli XCX

Rachel: Wait, what else did we do Thursday?
Gina: We went to the Vans day party at Mohawk.⁴
Rachel: I just remember spending Wednesday in a sweater puddle while electronic music played and people around me either got their pictures taken, or pointed at people having their pictures taken.
Rachel: That was Thursday. Ahhh. Got it.
Vivian: How was the show?
Gina: The show was cool. Disclosure was amazing.⁵ Such a good party. Adorable blonde brothers. sweet, nerdy, generally killin’ it. If I found it profound at 3pm, I bet at night in a danceclub it would be transcendent!!
Vivian: Awesome
Gina: Drumpads forever.
Rachel: Instead of cargo-shorted dudes with neon DTF hats looking around for something to do. I liked Charli.⁶
Gina: She was good, too; Charli XCX played as well. She was dressed like a Spice Girl; it was amazing. She had a neon green sports bra and like, big pajama pants on.
Rachel: You saw Disclosure and Charli XCX, and I stared into the abyss and the security guard guarding the super wet-noodle VIP.
Gina: Yeah, that was the least interesting VIP section ever.
Vivian: How so?
Gina: Everyone just seemed bored? You know how sometimes convenience is a curse? I think about this a lot — how with Festivals, some amount of suffering is necessary and even good. It’s this intense environment where you just sacrifice all bodily comforts in the name of maximizing your own exposure to this thing you’re obsessed with. It’s an insane but interesting pace! BUT when you’re in the cush VIP — or even on the guest list at a show, say — you can just waltz in and out in this very disconnected way. Always sheltered by a tent and kinda removed.
Vivian: Hrm makes sense maybe, but then if you’re used to the VIP thing you’re just expectant of that from then on. I feel like sometimes musicians or whoever will opt to stay backstage in the VIP area rather than going out into the heart of the festival just because they’re used to it, even though the sound back there sucks or you might see better from the front, etc. It’s kinda weird.
Gina: Yeah, definitely. I certainly don’t blame them. But i think the emotional lows (and therefore highs) are so much less pronounced. Hence a lot of blase VIP hangs.
Rachel: Uhh… also it was the VANS VIP. Everyone’s wanting to make a VIP out of nothing.
Gina: Hahaha so true.

RE: FASHION

⁷ SXSW seapunk princesses in Monster High Girls form^8,9 Sad things that exist :(

Rachel: Mohawk is awesome; you can see everything from the top level. I wanted to take a picture of some girls…
Gina: The seapunk princesses?⁷ Oh my god, they were so good.
Rachel: Like Monster High dolls! They had faded purple and pink hair, six-inch heels. One of them had a tight dress on and then this flowy robe, and a gold purse with an alligator on it.
Gina: Yeah!!!
Rachel: They both were the same, so they always had to be together.
Gina: They had these little floral crowns that were so good.
Vivian: They probably feel weird when they’re by themselves.
Gina: That’s what we were saying! They can never be apart, and yeah, one of them was wearing a see-through jumpsuit. I was the most envious ever. It was so good. Gigantic velvet platforms and yeah, this little crown, and this faint purple mermaid hair, and I was like, “I just want to be you…”
Vivian: By yourself, it’s not as cool…
Gina: And it’s also like, “What can you do on a day-to-day basis?” You couldn’t do any actual activities in that outfit besides standing around and looking awesome, so you basically need a job that involves that.
Rachel: Later they let us down by just being Forever 21 hoes with pink and purple hair.
Gina: Yeah, it’s true. The outfits made it. Transparent floral jumpsuit!!! I was agonizing with jealousy!
Rachel: Uh, I wasn’t but it was cool!
Gina: Hahaha
Rachel: Wait, also is this a thing in anyone’s mind? so many hoes! Weird spring break barf on sixth street.
Gina: Oh yeah, totally.
Rachel: By Saturday, we were seeing so many nipples and so many neon hats.
Gina: The party bus had many a tube dress in various degrees of malfunction!
Rachel: We rode the bus with a chubby man that had an overly groomed goatee and a “slut” hat.
Gina: Oh, I hated him! Almost enough to say! There was one dude who had set up shop with all the neon horrors. DTF and SLUT trucker hats.
Vivian: Yeah gotta wonder who that guy is. Gina and I recently saw a cup that said “Vagina” in Coca-Cola font, and I saw a “Tide” shirt that said TITS. People still wear trucker hats?^8,9
Rachel: People that wear sparkly beads do.

RE: CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

¹⁰Shaved alpacas!
¹¹Fall Out Boy @ The Twix Shed

Rachel: Some guy was hitting on us on the party bus, and he gave us a pass that just says, “All access to the Twix shed,” and he kept going, “I mean, you girls know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs??”
Vivian: Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a question mark on the end?
Gina: Yeah. He was a tidy Korean man, and he just kept sort of touching Rachel’s arm and then reaching around to put his arm around me at the same time.
Rachel: He got a little too much of the idea that it was a party bus…
Gina: Totally.
Rachel: … his partner that he made the film with was a girl, and she kept coming up and trying to talk to him, and he kept saying, “You don’t even realize how selfish you’re being right now.”
Vivian: Ahhhh haha!
Rachel: Like he had any chance by giving us a Twix pass.
Gina: Totally, like the Twix pass was the secret.
Rachel: I wouldn’t mind going to it if he gave me an actual Twix.
Vivian: But imagine the Twixes they have at the Twix Lounge!
Gina: They probably…! Oh wait!
Rachel: Gina had a good point that “shed” is the least exciting stage term. Fort, stage, even yard but yeah. Did not excite us.
Gina: As opposed to “fort” which sounds cool and secret and like some sort of club HQ. Honestly though, it hadn’t crossed out minds that it might just be a shed FULL OF TWIX.
Rachel: Or MADE OF TWIX…
Vivian: At least it wasn’t shack? Was it shack or shed?
Rachel: Shed. Shack implies dwelling, shed implies junk. Or alpacas. Overflow bands storage.
Vivian: Next year: alpaca shed sponsored by the Native farmer’s association of Peru. Sorry, I am on the alpaca brain tip since you mentioned them. (Inserting picture of adorably shaved alpacas.)¹⁰
Rachel: Bwahahahha.
Gina: So cuuuuute. Uh-oh we fucked up! Coulda just frolicked in a pile of Twix w/ Fall Out Boy!¹¹
Rachel: They seem frolicky.
Vivian: Wow, Fall Out Boy are still a thing?
Gina: Apparently?
Vivian: Why haven’t I seen more chocolate sponsors?
Rachel: Well, Sandy and I got this chocolate that’s like, caffeinated chocolate that describes how it fucks up your brain on the back. But this guy had a huge box of it, and he was kind of hoarding it, and he was like, “Somebody just gave this to me!” So somebody had a job passing them out and just gave him the whole box.
Vivian: Whoa. What kinda chocolate is it? Did you try it? Did it fuck up your brain?
Rachel: Nope, because when I’m already drunk, I do have the sense to not eat chocolate that is caffeinated.
Vivian: It’s like those Pringles that tell you you’ll poop yourself.
Gina: Wait… what?
Vivian: They’re like fat-free Pringles with this thing called Olestra that makes you have a leaky bottom.
Gina: Ohhh no… ewrghhhh. Worst potential side effect ever.
Rachel: That’s when I laugh at the idea that, “I’m really skinny, but I might shit myself.” Not really worth it.
Vivian: Apparently it’s not even shit, it’s just like a puddle of oil… it probably smells like shit, though…
Gina: Oh no! I… I hate that… that last three seconds was pretty rough. Oh no. Eeheeehee.
Rachel: I don’t know if this is going to be useful to our…
Gina: Could put that in there…
Vivian: This is SXSW.
Gina: Yeah, that was pretty amazing. So yeah, maybe we should go to the shed sometime for some Twix.
Vivian: Where is it?
Gina: It’s by Stubb’s; in or near. We were kinda looking at it so perplexed, thinking it was fake, but we walked right by it today, and we were like, “That’s our shed!”
Vivian: Pop in there.
Gina: It is Fuse and Twix, but hopefully Twix is involved in a producty way.
Vivian: What other way would they be involved?!
Gina: I mean, maybe they just wanna put their logo everywhere. There are all of these Redbox pedi-cabs, for example, and they have no movies! There are no movies there!
Vivian: That would be cool.
Gina: That would be pretty cool. Rent a movie while riding home.
Vivian: That would be the ultimate. Rent Redbox movies to drunk people who are only in town for SXSW and have no idea where they can go to return the movies. They’d make a fortune!

RE: KATE BUSH & BOUNCE MUSIC

¹²Hounds of Love Haus Show
¹³ Lots of ass… a lot…

¹⁴ Big Freedia

¹⁵ Lady can’t really shake her ass :(

¹⁶ Fat Tony and SNACKS

Gina: I had a great time at the Hounds of Love Haus Show!¹² It just felt like a Portland house show and I had a home away from home feeling, seeing buddies in a backyard.
Vivian: I liked when everyone was crowded around an industrial construction lamp thing as though it was a bonfire.
Gina: Oh yeah! I remember that! It was like a Portland party, except instead of everyone clustered around a fire pit outside, there were just these weird shop lights set up in this dead dirt yard? But everyone still circled around the light like moths.
Rachel: I think Kate Bush as house music in between sets is a bad move. You’re just begging to be upstaged. I mean, I liked it. But it made me just want to listen to Kate Bush.
Gina: Hehe true. Although Weyes Blood was pretty KB-realm.
Vivian: IT’S CALLED THE HOUNDS OF LOVE HAUS PARTY, RACHEL. They just listened to that record on repeat. Are we over that record? Though we used it as the intro to our zine? Over it?!!
Rachel: Hahahahah! Only like house and bounce now!!!!!!!
Never over anything EVERERRRR. But no longer see it as a guiding totem all the fucking time.
Gina: Hahaha it’s true, KB was our main beacon goddess!
KB and MJ over and over for me.
Rachel: Why can’t Vockah Redu be our new beacon of life guiding goodness? Just like “Y’all can hate me now, but I won’t stop now”¹³
Gina: Not a bad idea!
Rachel: And “do it up hup hup”, etc.
Gina: Very life-affirming! Also THEEsatisfaction. 2013 should be the year of fierceness!
Vivian: Man, I needa see a bounce show, still haven’t
Rachel: RULIN!
Gina: Oh man, remembering our first Big Freedia experience!¹⁴
Vivian: Lucky
Rachel: Yes!!! Why did we take Chris the second time? He was soooooo not into it. Two times!! I would be in any cult she had.
Gina: She said she wanted us all to have our hands on the ground. So it was just a sea of butts in the air!!
Rachel: I would learn to go on my head and shake my ass. Yes! Then she asked who got more head! And everyone was screaming!!!
Gina: Ahhhh
Vivian: I think I used to practice bounce-type butt shaking when I was a kid. Ahead of the curve. Shoulda known there was a career in that somewhere.
Gina: Hehe I’m so immature about it still! Maybe that’s the point. Nothing more amusing than shaking one’s own butt around.
Rachel: Dude, everyone should love to shake their own butt!
Vivian: Oh man, Van recently showed us this video where this lady was trying to do the bounce ass-shaking thing, and she had such amazing background dancers, but she herself did not know how to do it at all. It is most amazing.¹⁵
Rachel: Hahahahhaha.
Gina: Hehehe.
Rachel: I wish you guys could have seen!!! It was that and a bunch of punk bands. So good. Also saw this dude. His producer was called Tom Cruz. This video rules. PEOPLE MADE OF SNACKS!!!!!¹⁶
Vivian: Sweeet. Weird.
Rachel: And then his other songs were like shouting out very specific shitty Brooklyn neighborhoods. Only thing that could get my spirits up. Then he went into this long thing about women not letting men beat them and I was like, “Yeah okay, dude, I can get down with not beating women; I WILL wave my hands”. Though I don’t know where drunk ended and sick and hungover began.

RE: FRIDAY’S FAILURES

Vivian: Do we want to talk about Friday’s failures?
Gina: That was rough. Eternal wait for a day party to see Poolside and Youth Lagoon.
Vivian: WASN’T EVEN THAT LONG!
Rachel: OKAY okay. I just take door people at their word!
Gina: We were falsely told that we needed a Spotify app for entrance and gave up when we were close!
Vivian: Stupid distractions from naysaying people about RSVPs and random guy who was hanging out and wanted to go to Viceland! I woulda gladly waited forever! That’s what I get! And of course Jake said that Poolside was the best band he saw all day and got in ten minutes after we left. Sonsa bitchez.
Gina: I knowwwww.
Rachel: Dude, I totally thought we weren’t going to get in.
Gina: I was just believing the official-looking girl about the app thing.
Rachel: Me too!
Gina: Yeah. I didn’t mind the wait.
Vivian: It sucks cause my personal plan was to wait another 15 minutes because they always let more people in when a band is changing over, and that is totally what happened. Failure!
Gina: Yeah, there were several “if I could go back in time” moments, and that was definitely one.
Vivian: Because we then walked around aimlessly, wondered about a Doritos-sponsored stage, and then foolishly tried to get into Toro Y Moi after his set had already started — of course impossible! I was so frustrated that day since I had only seen one band at SXSW by late Friday afternoon. Grumps. And then we saw Small Black who suck shit. Mostly cause the singer was going all U2.
Rachel: Yeah, the music was pretty okay; it was the singer that killed me. And the worse he got, the more awesome he felt. A common frontman trait. Or vice versa.
Vivian: Hahaha.
Rachel: I hate that “Yeah, I’m killin it” face. Makes me want to kill. But I was still glad to be in the shade, in a weird cool bar. Didn’t care. Also I saw Toro Y Moi later, so suck that.
Vivian: I dunno I just felt mid-Small Black’s set and its bad vocals that this indie dance music shit is getting so homogeneously boring it’s crazy. I was also thinking about how bands like Gardens & Villa do similar things but don’t suck and what it is that is different really, cause it’s hard to really discern… I mean other than that their vocalist doesn’t suck.
Rachel: Sometimes though, a live performance just hits you the wrong way at the wrong time. Like, we deserved so much after waiting so long! Or maybe its the other way. Maybe suffering makes it sweeter.
Vivian: So actually small black was even worse? Hahahaha.
Gina: It’s really just what content you put in… like with Small Black, when it’s only about a “chill vibe”, chillwave’s downfall in general, there’s just nothing there to fall in love with. You can be enamored by or occasionally infatuated with a vibe or aesthetic, but it can’t hurt so good or inform the way you live your life!
Vivian: Meh and the vibe and aesthetic of chillwave are just so vanilla.
Gina: Versus say Gardens & Villa, where they are white dudes making funk-pop but they have angelic William Blake metaphysicial visions.
Rachel: But the vibe in that place was nuts! Flamingo dirt bar; the place was giving its all. Blahahaha.
Vivian: There was a very very very dirty giant flamingo and a ceiling that looked like it was sprayed with flame retardant but was actually covered with giant balls of crust-dust…
Gina: Oh yeah! It looked like an abandoned courtyard. Just layers of grime on the rafters.
Rachel: I just want to talk to these people sometimes. You give everyone the benefit of transcendence. Which makes me look at them with this critical “You’re probably dumb” eye.
Vivian: Eh, we have talked to G&V and there are transcendent ideas there. Haven’t talked to Small Black; maybe there are transcendent ideas but that might be a bummer.
Rachel: Hahahahahah. Forget Small Black. What else did we do? Is that ALL WE DID?
Gina: Boxed water! From their Virgin house which was to be our sanctuary.

¹⁸ Blue Hawaii

¹⁹ Jessie Ware

Vivian: YeahhhhH! We also saw The Flaming Lips playing to thousands of people on a jukebox-wattaged speaker system….¹⁷
Rachel: Oh fuck! That’s right we did. That’s only characterized by bathroom lines and having my chips and guacamole feed a fat security guard.
Vivian: …much to the chagrin of all who have heard tales of their live performance magnificence.
Rachel: Like, “He’s holding a baby”. That’s cool. I can’t really hear them. He’s still holding a baby, but yeah.
Vivian: Holding a baby is just not long-lasting enough of a gimmick, especially when he takes like 5 minutes in front of everyone to awkwardly don the baby-attached tentacle-suit.
Rachel: Hahahha. Yeah. I think babies are, in general, anti-climactic. And it was just a straight up baby doll. Didn’t do anything. And he kept kissing it and talking to it like, “Do you think they’re into this baby? I still love you.”
Gina: And then brought that guest vocalist onstage and grabbed her hair from the roots while she sang, with both of them frozen like that. That was disconcerting.
Rachel: Hahahah.
Vivian: That was actually the most interesting part IMHO. Girl from Phantogram.
Rachel: Would have ruled if it was SUPER LOUD.
Vivian: yeah.
Gina: It was interesting but creepy!
Rachel: But since it was like mid-level, it was just like watching your neighbor’s house party break down or something
Gina: Yeah, I expected him to be floating atop the crowd in a giant bubble or something with this manic energy going. I’ve just heard larger-than-life things about them.
Vivian: Probably with better sound, it woulda been more awesome. The songs were cool… the new single is rad.
Rachel: Yeah!!! It was also really beautiful to be in a park.
Vivian: True.
Rachel: You saw something else, right?
Vivian: Oh, I saw Blue Hawaii.¹⁸ They were cool… lady from Braids doing shit with vocal loops and effects and guy doing beats… their live show’s better than their record which is kinda low-key and samey. The live show covers more electronic ground and harder beats and stuff rather than just simple cut and paste electronics.
Rachel: I think that’s the most special. When something’s just a performance.
Vivian: Yeah, defo.
Gina: I wish Jessie Ware had been there! Current favorite thing.¹⁹
Vivian: Is there a song I should check out?
Gina: The indie world smiles on the pop star.
Vivian: Ah
Rachel: Thought it was okay… didn’t get pumped. Maybe would be more into it live, though.
Gina: http://stereogum.com/1220252/jessie-ware-sweet-talk-video/video/
Vivian: I saw a glimpse of lady wearing a dress in a field and quit that music video ~_~’
Rachel: Hahahhaha. I wanna be that lady!

RE: FEEL YOU, OUR UNOFFICIAL PARTY

²⁰ 1,250 Free Dos Equis beers!

²¹ Psychic Twin

²² Delicate Steve

See complete 2013 party recap.

²³ Casiokids at our first SXSW House Party in 2011

Rachel: Party ruled. Especially since I didn’t have to truck all the beer. How did you truck all the beer? Did they help you load it? Holy hell.
Vivian: I rented a U-Haul. They helped load, but Mark and I moved them all out of the car and into the basement. Definitely a workout. All 1,250 beers.²⁰
Rachel: Ah.
Vivian: What were some of our favorites of the day? Psychic Twin were surprisingly my favorite act of the day, though that was super early.²¹
Rachel: Which were they?
Vivian: Lady with vocal loops, two dudes on either side with drum pads, playing outside.
Gina: Same here! They were so good!
Vivian: Also, the nicest dudes. They were like helping later bands with sound and getting them water and shit. Blew my mind!
Gina: It’s true! And thanked us profusely for having them
Vivian: That’s my favorite thing about doing parties like this. Community in a weird non-community-oriented SXSW.
Rachel: Yeah. People are so into the house vibe. And I loved Grigor, that housemate ecstatically dancing barefoot in a skirt the entire night, then begging for it not to end!
Vivian: Oh yeah Grigor is the best.
Gina: So sweet!
Vivian: I also liked the two goth guys who were present for Darktown Strutters. One was wearing a miniature hair veil and told me he didn’t need help opening a Dos Equis because he was Mexican. The other had an amazing purse with brass knuckles as the handle; he said his mom gave it to him, too. So rad. I love how every year we have the really devoted weirdos.
Gina: It’s true!
Rachel: I liked watching Delicate Steve on the roof. Watching stars come out.²²
Gina: That was the best!
Vivian: His show seemed really epic. I was tending bar and missed!
Gina: They invited the crowd “onstage” but it’s just a yard, so it kinda meant everyone enveloping them from every direction
so that it was just this huge cluster of people grinning.
Vivian: Sweet. Remember our first year’s party when Casiokids did that?²³ Afterwards, they totally said, “We thought the party would be whack, but it turned out to be one of our best shows.” I was also a big fan of the gentlemanly crust-punks who kept picking up spare bottles and returning them to us. And Rachel’s effective beer-bottle-return-threatening ways.
Gina: Hehehe so awesome. Yeah, Rachel was slanging beers pretty hard!
Vivian: She drilled into their heads that they could only get beers if they returned a bottle. “The one rule to getting unlimited free beers is that you have to bring us back your empties!”
Gina: So rad! I would try to open them for people and like, one out of four would take me 2+ tries! Lacked the dexterity for that one.
Vivian: Rachel said you also almost fell off the roof ladder :X
Gina: Did not! Hehe. Well… chose bad foot placement. But Gian boosted me up.
Rachel: She totally would have fallen. I almost screamed
Muscly dude and I saved it.
Vivian: Ahaha.
Gina: Ahhhhh. Worth it when we got up there though. The warm evening… and we had that LED projector that made water-textures, projected onto the trees like they were dancing!
Vivian: Yeah, that projector was awesome. I can’t believe we followed up our party with being force-fed a hot dog in a bun. I’m glad though I was stoned as he –ll thanks to the guy who gave an edible for tips! — I still had the good sense not to eat a freaking hot dog at 1am.
Gina: Oh, I was so stoned! That glazed doughnut just WAS the embodiment of perfection at that moment.
Vivian: Double-donut-did, right?
Gina: Yeah. Did a choco sprinkle. It looked better than it was, though.
Rachel: UgHhh. Still can’t believe I ate that cheese-oozing hot dog thing. Colachi?
Vivian: Oh yeah, it had cheese in it… Is that what it’s called!? I was trying to figure it out. Bummer. Well, don’t get a freaking sour cream donut either… boring.
Gina: Glazed was the jam!
Vivian: Hm, kolachi seems like something else…
Rachel: Nope. None of these are tiny hot dogs pumped with CHEEZ cheese with a z style cheese.
Gina: Kolaches! http://www.thedailymeal.com/kolaches-breakfast-hot-dogs-texas-style. I think they just have a “local” definition of them.
Vivian: Ahh.
Gina: Shuddering at the term “unique weiner presentation”.
Vivian: Hahaha.
Gina: OMG, we’re so snacky! Snacks take the lead every time.

Related posts:

1. FEEL YOU (#25) SXSW 2013 Unofficial House Party Mixtape
2. SXSW 2013 Picks: Official & Unofficial SXSW Showcases, Parties, and Bands
3. BODY||MIND 2012: An Unofficial SXSW House Party

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

TRIFECTA x SXSW: A Three-Way Conversational Guide To Shows & Snacks

Parapsychological Concepts Shuffled in Through the Side Door

When brainstorming on how to take Matmos’ legacy one step further, Daniel, being the English professor and academic that he is, fell in brain-with a meta-concept. Instead of simply making a concept album and sharing its particulars, why not make a concept album with a concept that will never be truly revealed?

“The situation that we’re in now — where I make art and I have to talk about why I have to do it — when you’ve done this for eighteen, twenty years, that starts to affect the way you think about it. There’s art, and then there’s discourse about the art,” explains Daniel. “How can I respond to [our reputation for concept albums] and create a situation in which I never actually reveal the concept?… what that was a telepathic situation…”

The Marriage of True Minds is primarily based on a series of Ganzfeld experiments, designed to test individuals for ESP. Participants were placed into mild sensory deprivation, wearing ping-pong balls over their eyes and headphones playing white noise. Daniel then attempted to telepathically transmit to them the basic concept of the record, and participants would relay aloud what they saw, heard, or felt. Using a combination of collaged fragments from these recorded sessions and original material, the album was eventually constructed. This basic premise is no secret; Matmos made it public early on. But even though one can see both the responses from participants and Matmos’ eventual musical output as crafted from those responses, a bit of a chicken and the egg conundrum remains; it’s unclear which elements informed which, since Daniel’s exact transmissions have remained a mystery.

“[The concept is] not disclosed in any other way than through this attempt to transmit, which is already fraught with all kinds of charlatanry…” says Daniel. “I liked the idea that there was simultaneously total honesty about what we did but also this kind of hard kernel which was obscured.”

Rather than conducting ESP experiments, Matmos could simply have created an album concept and never revealed it to anyone — but the route they took was much more exciting than a simply obscured one. Matmos aren’t insidiously leaving listeners in the dark with no way out, but have left behind plenty of bread crumbs which could help anyone who is curious and willing piece together bits of the puzzle. In the end, you probably still won’t know what exactly the cookie in their pocket tastes like, but you can become increasingly certain that what they have is a cookie and not a leg of lamb. Thanks to the slippery nature of the mind, one can hone in on the exact concept in only infinitely smaller degrees, never likely to reach its true nature.

“When I narrate it, I guess I would say that I always had one thought, and the thought was the concept of the new Matmos album. But concepts, as such, can have both sonic and visual and semantic content and formal content. And that’s kind of what’s beautiful about language, right?” explains Daniel. “The word ‘knife’ denotes a signifier but it also has all of this kind of funny, seemingly arbitrary stuff about k’s and n’s and soft f sounds and hard kuh sounds that any concept you try to hold and focus winds up leading to all of these associative tendrils that lead out from its singularity.”

MATMOS BAND INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Love in darkness. Machine noise. Some speaking. Smoke. Whispering. A derive around the city. Fresh fruit in your hand. A city that works, functions. Sort of skipping in the pavement. Find the metros. Adverts made up. Fresh sky. Turn into a bakery. Buy a baguette. Fresh bread. Walk out again. Keep on walking until you reach … reach the end of the road. Suddenly see a storm. At the center of it there’s a black polygon. It’s kind of … what shape is it? Slowly moving. Out towards the boundaries of the space.

“I see the infinity symbol morphing into a Gordian knot. Scribbles on a piece of paper or an electron cloud. Jesus Christ on the cross. An hourglass. Some sort of insect that’s bifurcated with many legs and small black eyes. Flaming scythe sort of moving in circles, creating the effect of a tornado viewed from above. Some sort of cube with a star of David jutting out from its sides. A galaxy viewed from far away slowly whirling around its center.”

“The noise is undulating. It’s like a wavering maybe. It’s hard to speak because the sound of my voice is interrupting. There’s like a white triangle. Waves. There are waves. They kind of pulse. One, two, three, four, five. Waves of darkness that pulse in and out. They’re really regular. They move into the circle, there’s like a circle at the center. A circle of white and the blackness consumes it. It disappears and it disappears and it disappears, disappears. A bit slower. Disappears. Speeds up. It’s like these luminous rings and they move away. Everything is slower. They dissolve. Now there’s just a stillness.”

Trilling flutes. Clashing. Birds. Traffic. Expressway bridge. Distant trumpet. More flutes. Steps down a hallway. Doors. Kind of a grunting, an UGH. More trumpets, like an alarum. Woman whispering. Quiet. Birds, birds again. A fountain. Quiet. Distant conversation, not really audible. I know it’s conversation, at the fringe of your hearing. More flutes. High strings, and a siren. Whispering, a sigh. Someone saying “I don’t know.” A woman’s voice. “I don’t know.” Three notes struck hard, like on a piano. Someone jokes. Conveyor belt. Boxes dropping. Red.

 

 

More transcripts and images can be seen via
verylargegreentriangles.tumblr.com

 

The Beauty of Interpretation

Even if Daniel wanted to — which he doesn’t — it seems likely that even he couldn’t even relay with exact precision what he was transmitting, for even in concentrated and intentional states of thought, the mind wanders and associates however it feels compelled to. What is more important, then, is that their clever idea has the potential to be recycled henceforth into infinity, by them or by others.

“We really could keep going. There are so many transcripts that are so awesome. One of them… should so clearly be a thirty-minute film on its own,” says Schmidt.

“The results of the experiment — when we did the first one — were so poetic and beautiful and just weird that I felt like, ‘Oh, this could really be a record, and not just a gag,’” adds Daniel.

Matmos collected so much material from their sessions — which were pulled from experiments at their home with friends and acquaintances, as well as at a residency at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford — that they created a Tumblr blog to “slowly… cough out all of the transcripts and photos”. The Tumblr is a multimedia gold mine of documentation, containing text transcripts, bizarre book excerpts, and images of sonic patterns from the sessions, all designed to encourage philosophical questioning of whether the images, the words, or the thoughts were the “real” original source, or some combination of all those things. The level to which Matmos have likely thought about all aspects of this project seems fairly preposterous, but also makes sense when one strains to understand the mode under which they operate.

While all albums are crafted through extensive decision-making processes, The Marriage of True Minds required Matmos to facilitate and then wade through mountains of source material, while attempting not to be bogged down by the weight of infinite possibility. Such decisions are not always easy, which might be part of the reason the record took five years to create.

“On our end, it was kind of a free association of — ‘How do we want to work with this transcript?’ We would be very loyal to the details in the cases of some songs, and with other songs, we would be really loose, and say, ‘Well, I want to use this, and I want to use this, and I want to use this’”, Daniel recalls. “There were all sorts of choices that we got to make — and that’s the fun start with working in this sort of conceptual restraint manner. It doesn’t mean that you have no freedom; you actually have tremendous freedom. I think it almost foregrounds the freedom because of how you interpret.”

The source materials Matmos had to work with were often extremely abstract. Perhaps they’d choose to incorporate a pentatonic melody someone heard, or Chinese checkers someone saw, or the sound of metal brackets. But what does any of that mean, and how can it all be translated into a cohesive sonic product? The methods of construction were as variable as the sources themselves. During the beginning of the process, Matmos would project ideas to participants on a track-by-track basis. Later on, the format became much looser.

With the album’s first single, “Very Green Triangles”, a transcript from musician Ed Shrader was used almost in its entirety. In the similarly-themed “In Search of a Lost Faculty”, varied triangular visions were turned into a sonic collage.

“It was late in the game when we decided, ‘Let’s make a song that’s all the triangle images from every session and kind of pull across things from lots of sessions,’” says Daniel.

The mystery of the triangles is one that stands strong on its own and by default, brings up one question that begs to be answered: were triangles a part of Matmos’ original album concept? It seems that either Matmos are clever tricksters who have considered this question inside and out — including how they might talk about it in interviews — or the phenomenon was completely unrelated to their original transmissions.

“We didn’t know that the triangles were going to be there until we listened to them all, and we were like, ‘Oh, boy, people sure are talking about triangles a lot,’” says Schmidt.

“We even speculated that maybe the kids at Oxford had a joke between them of, ‘Let’s all talk about triangles,’ because it was eerie,” Daniel adds. He later expands on the band’s other theory that prior to each session, the last thing participants saw before lying down was the camera hanging in the air above them, the legs of a tripod forming a triangle.

Another unknown of the whole project is how much psychic potential the band members or their participants had by default. Nobody was screened, and everyone was allowed to participate. The large sample size truly allowed Matmos the ability to see the studies not just in terms of the response, but in terms of how the responses varied when external factors — including themselves — were taken into consideration. They learned early on, for example, that intoxicated individuals would give amusing responses, but not of the caliber that they were looking for. They also learned that people who were not familiar with them were preferable in a lot of ways.

“We noticed that people who were too familiar with our work would sometimes produce kind of parodic versions of perhaps what they thought we wanted — and that concerned me,” says Daniel. “I’m glad we had a chance through the residencies to deal with people who –”

“Had no idea who we were,” finishes Schmidt.

“Yeah, had no agenda,” Daniel continues. “Or, you know, just older academics at Oxford, professors –”

“Who really had no interest in who we were,” Schmidt finishes again, this time with more oomph.

“[They] just didn’t care, and could approach the experiment as just an experiment… and it was really helpful — the more we did it, to start to think about the patterns that emerged, and to sort of watch the album happen. I mean, it’s a little like looking at faces in the fire; if you think that you’re going to see them, you start to see noses and eyes, so out of this morass something starts to emerge — and you think that it’s there, but maybe it’s you,” hypothesizes Daniel.

Through the years and all of the possibilities that have come and gone with The Marriage of True Minds and its related projects, it’s exciting to know that Matmos are still in love with their original meta-concept and still find humor in the fine push-pull of sharing and not sharing its details. Schmidt’s closing thought on this topic is a humble representation of their love for this.

“What we end up giving to the world,” he says, “is really meager compared to the incredible amount of stuff that we’ve seen and heard as a result of it.” say

Ω

Related posts:

1. Spectral Hypnosis: Matmos, Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, Clark MP3 Downloads & Streams
2. Liars Band Interview: WIXIW Confusion
3. Spectral Hypnosis: Tim Hecker & Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never, Seattle’s Stenskogen

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Matmos Band Interview: Psychic Sessions and Meta-Concepts Form The Marriage of True Minds

Dessa’s Closing Ceremony Speech at Nobel Peace Prize Forum

“It’s definitely a perk,” she says, “finding ways to help support the causes that move me. It’s pretty recent, the past two or three years. Before that, I wasn’t in the position to make any cause more visible, because I was in the process of making myself as a musician more visible.”

Through the years, Dessa has worked with numerous causes, schools, and organizations – much of which has been dedicated to helping troubled youth and battered women; she has also been a speaker at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. More recently, Dessa has teamed up with The Elixery, a makeup manufacturer that has taken her namesake and turned it into a shade of lipstick to help the needy.

“Elixery… is cosmetics company out of Minneapolis, and they put out a shade of lipstick called ‘Dessa,’ and one-hundred percent of the proceeds go to the organization CARE.org, which is dedicated to helping destitute women around the world. The proceeds of Dessa will go to help equip and educate these women to pull themselves out of poverty.

“It feels good. It’s been an unexpected, but totally appreciated [partnership].”

Another event of note that Dessa has been a part of is the “Evening with Dessa,” an intimate performance at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). The event, which happened at the end of February 2013, was held to benefit a new teen scholarship program for the area’s youth, an audience typically looked at as a market niche rather than the next bastion of artists and leaders.

“The MIA was looking for an event for a scholarship program and they approached me, knowing that I’ve done the work,” said Dessa. “It was an easy project to align with.”

In the wake of public tragedies and the PR hiccups in the hip-hop community (see: Chris Brown’s court-mandated public service controversy or Dr. Dre’s anti-violence PSA), Dessa notes that while people aren’t generally aware about musicians who do give back, she assures that it happens.

“Partnering hip-hop artists with charitable causes is nothing that I made up,” she is quick to note. “I’m very much taking cues from the likes of everyone, from Nicki Minaj to 50 Cent, to Russell Simmons; [from] P.O.S. to I-Self Devine…. but they’re infrequently covered by the media, perhaps, unless they’re related to a tragedy.

“[Supporting community organizations] is part of the fabric of hip-hop culture.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELLI READER

Ω

Related posts:

1. Charitable Musicians: Hip-Hop Rapper Ikonoklasta Protests Against The Angolan Government
2. Charitable Musicians: Mae Choose To Self-Release And Aid Charity (w/ Band Interview)
3. The Cure Live Show Footage From Bestival, Live Album Benefits Charity

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Charitable Musicians: Doomtree Collective Rapper Dessa Says Hip-Hop and Charity Go Hand-In-Hand

Responses from Emily Pothast of Midday Veil and Director Steven Miller

On The Spiritual &
Conceptual Side of Things

Q&A by Thad McKraken

Your new video basically involves keyboardist David Golightly being buried alive by a coven of witches as a sacrifice to some creepy daemonic super witch entity so the rest of Midday Veil can rock out that much harder or something like that. Where did this concept come from, and how does David feel about all this high strangeness (and the inherent awesomeness of gold lamé underwear)?

EP: Haha! I guess you could say that the basic concept has been sort of developing for years, due to our interest in mythology, especially ancient mystery religions that involve sacrificing or dismembering a god/hero and taking him into the underworld in order to give him a secret awareness of the processes of death and resurrection.

The first spark of the idea for the video actually came to us last spring while David and I were hiking at Moran State Park on Orcas Island. There are some stone structures out there that were built by the WPA in the 1930s, and they really look like they should be used to have a rock show that culminates in a human sacrifice. Weird dungeon/picnic pavilion vibes. As the concept developed, it ended up making more sense to use Seattle locations, but we did spend the better part of a day brainstorming after stumbling onto those structures.

A few weeks later we were at brunch with a Seattle artist named Amanda Manitach (who appears in the video as one of the women in white slips, whom we called “maenads” during production). We started telling her about our idea, and the cake orgy just sort of emerged during the conversation. Some of Amanda’s work involves the eroticized use of messy food, and that was definitely an inspiration in the early stages. At least… a cake orgy at a rock show seemed like a logical project for us to work on together!

As far as the golden shorts go, David is an excellent sport. Also, he looks great in them, so there’s that.

SM: I heard Emily and Amanda’s idea for a cake sacrifice, then found out the song is over 11-minutes-long and knew that there had to be more involved in the story. At that first meeting, I had the idea to bring in a coven of witches to call in the dark goddess and instigate the maenads into action. As for the burying alive — a friend did an O.T.O. ritual years ago where she was symbolically buried and sequestered from all humans for a month before being reborn into the world. I really liked that idea but wanted to make it literal, since I knew it would be disturbing to see. I’d been wanting to create that visual ever since I asked Canadian band Les Jupes if they’d do it for a band photo years ago. They said no, but David didn’t mind at all! From there, I wrote a script that is basically the video as you see it.

I found the concept particularly fascinating, because one of the themes that has been interpenetrating my psychic life as of late has been that of female energy consuming and feeding off the masculine — as if the previous era of humanity has shifted and now it’s time for the sacred feminine to devour the dark war mongering energy that “mankind” has created. Terence Mckenna, Whitley Strieber, and others have described encountering entities that have an almost insectile-multi-eyed-telepathic-hive-mind characteristics. I don’t know if you’re up on insect sexuality, but the feminine typically reigns supreme in that micro-verse. There are no King Bees, if you catch my drift. Thoughts?

EP: Oh wow. Well, I mentioned the inspiration of mystery religions, myths that explore the inner workings of sex and death, which definitely relate to the core processes of nature. These myths are at the root of Christianity, but while the basic mechanism of the dying/resurrecting godman is alive and well in the character of Christ, the “feminine” and erotic aspects of the eternal that were also present in early versions of the myth have been considered taboo for most of Western history.

Elsewhere in the world, the Dark Devouring Mother is acknowledged in figures like Rangda or Kali, but in the west, the worship of the sacred feminine has been driven underground, where it has nevertheless persisted in the form of esoteric practice and witchcraft…

It’s interesting that you mention bees because there is such a close association between the symbolism of beehives, the Great Goddess, and witchcraft…

SM: I’ve encountered that insectile DMT universe, but I don’t think that was at play here. It wasn’t until I saw the video completed that I recognized what I was trying to invoke. A coven of witches create a ritual that stir the women at the concert to unleash their subconscious desires to consume David AND call forth the Great Cold of the Night simultaneously: the ritual invokes both the id and superego of feminine energy. David gets buried and consumed, then reborn anew as the dark goddess’ consort. For me, the story isn’t so much about creating a matriarchy as a balancing of the energies. They walk off together hand-in-hand at the end of the story to symbolize that balancing. I’m guessing this story says more about my own subconscious; since I was a child, hermaphroditic angels have always been the enlightened beings in my dreams.

The last time I saw you guys live, I was mildly tripping on mushrooms. Emily handed me a maraca at the beginning of the set, which was a very tribal improv freak out thing. I got so into shaking that maraca that I actually gave myself a huge blister without even realizing it. I was somehow so wrapped up in the music that I completely blocked out the mounting pain. You could say it was a mild form of possession. With that in mind, do you see a lot of potentiality in the live musical experience as a means to create new ideas regarding spirituality and therefore spiritual ritual? Also, do you ever sit up at night thinking about the potential consequences of handing maracas to tripping people?

EP: I definitely think there’s a link between music performance and spiritual ritual, and while these might seem like new ideas given our very secular culture, I think it’s essentially as old as humanity. There is this book from the ’80s called The Death and Resurrection Show that is all about the performative nature of “shamanism” and its impact on the emergence of the performing arts. It’s almost cliché, since so many mediocre musicians like to imagine themselves as “shamans,” but there’s a reason we want to identify rockstars with that archetype. There’s a deep history there.

I’m sorry my shaker gave you a blister!

What is the underlying theme and concept behind your new album The Current? Is it kind of like tapping into the psychic grid connecting us all and finding your path — what Christians refer to as the Holy Spirit or what Vivian refers to as Intuitive Navigation? Or am I completely off track with that?

EP: You know, the concept of this album is a little more open-ended than some of the things we’ve done in the past. The first song on the album is called “The Current”, and it was written as a jam in the studio that I had to go back and write words for, which isn’t exactly the easiest way for me to work.

There is an artist in Seattle named Sharon Arnold who curates these box sets of art multiples with a written component, called LxWxH. A couple of years ago, she asked me to write something for one of the boxes, and I contributed an essay called “The Current”. At the time, I was trying to find a way to weave together the works of two visual artists whose work was very different from one another. I liked the image of the current because it is evocative of both the literal currents of natural processes and also the common thread that emerges within an artist’s work over time, as older works are given a new context when they enter into dialogue with new works, or even the way that versions of “self” or identity can be conceived of as snapshots along an invisible axis that winds through time.

Currents have no content of their own, but they help create the form of everything. So yeah, your idea about the Holy Spirit is probably not far from the mark! Of the six songs on this album, two, “Choreia” and “Remember Child”, are new versions of songs that appeared on our very first CD-Rs together as a band. The identity of those songs has changed widely since we first conceived of them, and those songs have seen us through a lot of changes. New band members have joined, and a couple of members have left, but there is still a continuity within the music. There’s a continuity with our videos, too, although the latest one obviously, uh, takes the cake. We’re actually about to issue a super limited, tour-only VHS compilation of all the videos that Midday Veil has produced over the past few years. It’s 56-minutes long, which is a lot of video! There are common threads there, too, especially the exploration of video feedback, which uses the inherent properties of video to generate emergent forms that seem to illuminate a hidden world of the forces of nature.

Ω

Related posts:

1. Midday Veil – “Choreia” Music Video Premiere
2. Midday Veil – “Anthem” Music Video
3. Midday Veil – Moon Temple Music Video (Subterranean Ritual II)

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Midday Veil – Great Cold of the Night Music Video (w/ Director & Musician Interviews)

[nextpage title="Geometric & Pattern-Based (22)"]

SIMPLE || GEOMETRIC

COMPLEX || PATTERN-BASED

Ancestors – In Dreams And Time // AU – Both Lights // Believers – Self-Titled // Ben Vida – Esstends-Esstends-Esstends // Cloudkicker – Fade // DVA – The Fly Juice // Goat – World Music // Hecker – Chimerization // Ital – Hive Mind // Laurie Spiegel – Expanding Universe // A Lull – Meat Mountain EP // Magic Touch x Sapphire Slows – Just Wanna Feel // Man Forever – Pansophical-Cataract // Mike Shiflet – Merciless // Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Stare // Pangaea – Release // Peace – Delicious // Stephan Mathieu & Sylvain Chauveau – Palimpsest // Swahili – Swahili // Vessel – Order Of Noise // Wild Nothing – Nocturne // The xx – coexist

 

A series of album covers thumbnailed from top to bottom from simple and geometric to complex and pattern-based. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

 

ALL CATEGORIES:

Ancestors – In Dreams And Time (Tee Pee Records)

Artist unknown.

This record was featured in our Psychoactive Soundscapes: Top 20 Mind-Bending Albums For 2012 article.

“Crazy lace agate is between 65 and 90 million years old!” – Adam Heathcott of Hometapes

 

RELATED POSTS:

AU Hometapes Portland Musicians

AU – Both Lights (Hometapes)

ARTWORK & DESIGN BY HOMETAPES – home-tapes.com
CONCEPTUAL HELP FROM SHAWN BRACKBILL – shawnbrackbill.com – AND SADEK BAZARAA – sadekbazaraa.com

“When Luke [Wyland of AU] came to us with the album name Both Lights, he also gave us this little info nugget: ‘the light that is emanated/given and the light that is reflected/received.’ I internalized that to mean looking out and looking in. I started thinking about the classic, Eames’ Powers of Ten film. We exist on a plane that we can believe in and see, yet as we look into the night sky or start to examine the dirt beneath our feet, it just keeps going further and further. The real magic happens when we start to see the same patterns in the small as we do in the big and vice versa. Luke’s music has always worked that way for me: chaotic moments of maximalist, exultant sound, juxtaposed with close, minimal sounds and raw emotions so close you can feel your pulse adjusting to match. We all live somewhere on that spectrum of ups and downs.” - Adam Heathcott of Hometapes

 

“Sara (from Hometapes) and I both collected rocks as kids. Thirty plus years in, we’re still looking down. In the past year, we come across a few slices of Mexican crazy lace agate. They appeared to have entire solar systems living within them. I threw them on a scanner and upped the resolution as high as my computer would allow, then spent time viewing them at high magnification uncovering more textures and shapes. (Fast forward through huge amounts of color adjustment to make them look as close as possible to the real thing.) What you end up with are two sections (front and back cover) of the agate that were originally not much larger than a penny. Up close, you can just live in them. We knew we wanted to take a chance with the print production and decided to print the images on top of foil board. This added more dimension to the agate, and creates an interactive experience for the person holding the record as their reflection becomes part of the cover. Looking out. Looking in.” – Adam Heathcott of Hometapes

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“From what I can remember, it was definitely a back and forth process that found us going through several ideas. I would send over words and abstract thoughts on where I was coming from with the music/album, and [Adam and Sara would] find interesting visual representations of some the things I was expressing. Both of them are quite brilliant at creating rather magical artwork/packaging for all of their releases. Definitely worth going back and looking through their entire catalog.” – Luke Wyland of AU

Believers – Believers (Self-Released)

COLLAGE BY WESLEY POWELL OF BELIEVERS
LAYOUT & WEBSITE BY TYLER POWELL
PRINTING BY ALEX DURLAK OF STANDARD FORM – standardform.org

“I tend to become overwhelmed by the infinities that open up when working in any medium, be it musical, visual, linguistic, or otherwise; it’s difficult for me to move forward and make a choice knowing that any choice I make is ultimately arbitrary…

I’m crippled by open-endedness, so in order to maintain a level of sanity and allow myself to complete anything, I try to limit the choices I’m able to make. As the rule for the collages on/in our record, I limited the source material to just one book or one photograph within said book. Working with fractions of an image teaches me to see and appreciate the unnoticed [things] I wouldn’t in a more passive viewing. Textures. Geometries. Absences. Whatever. For me, it’s a meditative process and I like to extend that kind of vision/perception beyond my time holding a Stanley and scissors.” – Wesley Powell of Believers

Ben Vida – Esstends-Esstends-Esstends (Pan)

DESIGN BY BILL KOULIGAS & KATHRYN POLITIS

Artist could not be reached for comment.

Cloudkicker – Fade (Self-Released)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY CHARLIE WAGERS FOR THREE BEARS DESIGN – charliewagers.com

“Nostalgia, the resonance of ideas and memories through time.” - Ben Sharp of Cloudkicker

 

“The title, Fade, is a reference to how memories work and how that ties into nostalgia. Ben was hugely inspired by this Alan Watts quote:

‘There is evidence around — monumental evidence — of a past, of vibrations which have been evoked before, of age-old hills and ancient buildings. Yet these very remains and memories are being reiterated and structured from the vibrations in the present.’

Basically meaning that the past isn’t really the past because it’s still resonating in the present. All of our ideas of what the past was like still come out of artifacts or ideas that we construct in the present, so it’s not really the past at all. With that, I wanted to create this crazy abstract image, that partially represents the dynamics of the audio itself, but also those vibrations, and the encompassing cycle of the past resonating to the present.

[The] Alan Watts quote was originally going to be typed into the album artwork. But Ben ended up scrapping that idea because he encoded the text into audio, which he then hid in the digital download version of the record. That way some listeners would recognize the way it was encrypted, and then they could translate it back to the text. Pretty cool, huh?” – Charlie Wagers

DVA – The Fly Juice EP (Hyperdub)

DESIGN BY OPTIGRAM – optigram.net

Artist could not be reached for comment.

Goat – World Music (Rocket Recordings)

DESIGN BY CHRIS REEDER OF ROCKET RECORDINGS

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The idea I had in my head was to use an African pattern [and] make it psychedelic, but also contemporary and modern as well. First, I hunted out some patterns in bookshops and online, found one I liked, and copied it. Then I tried lots of different colourways, as wanted it to have a bright, in-your-face but modern feel. Then I was playing with the album title and the ‘WM’ motif just happened… The idea of the die-cut and contrasting the coloured patterns came from the exploration with a sleeve that messed with the eyes!!” – Chris Reeder

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
[The] album sleeve was born out of circumstance. We had commissioned two ‘already existing’ photos to be used on the front and back of the sleeve. Then a week before we were sending the record to manufacture, the photographer called us and said they had changed their mind and we couldn’t use them!! At the time, we were really disappointed by this — but in hindsight, it was an absolute blessing as the sleeve we ended up with (which we had five days to come up with, design, artwork, and get to the printer) is so much better and unique than the photos we were gonna use.

At first, I thought it would be too expensive to make but our amazing manufacturers, Breed, were able to find a way of doing it within our budget, and we are so chuffed we did as the die-cut sleeve looks amazing on the record racks in shops. By all accounts, it has become a bit of an iconic sleeve already!!” – Chris Reeder

Hecker – Chimerization (Editions Mego)

DESIGN BY NORM – norm.to

“For ‘Chimerization’ Hecker invited the Iranian writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani, to contribute an experimental libretto, ‘The Snake, the Goat and the Ladder (A board game for playing chimera)’ a script that has been recited by a group of speakers and recorded by Hecker in anechoic and sound-attenuated chambers – rooms designed to minimize the reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.

Hecker characterizes ‘Chimerization’ as a concept derived from psychoacoustic investigations on difficult-to-define areas between language and non-language, a process focusing on the decomposition of sound and synthesizing incompatible modalities, surpassing their respective particularities without fusing them, in order to obtain a narration beyond immediate comprehension, which may be deciphered through repeated, ‘active’ listening.

‘Chimerization’ is released in the following languages – English (eMEGO 153), German (eMEGO 154), the mother tongue of the artist and Farsi (eMEGO 155), the orginal language of the writer.” – Editions Mego

Ital – Hive Mind (Planet Mu)

ARTWORK & DESIGN BY SAM CHIRNSIDE – samchirnside.com

Artist could not be reached for comment.

Laurie Spiegel – The Expanding Universe Reissue (Unseen Worlds)

CONCEPT AND DESIGN BY LAURIE SPIEGEL
ADDITIONAL DESIGN AND LAYOUT BY TOM MCCUTCHON AND UNKNOWN

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“First I should mention that the CD album cover was based on the 1980 LP cover, so I’ll be talking mainly about that… I love color and texture. I wrote the notes on my Apple II, and it had a Imagewriter I dot matrix. In 1980, printing shops didn’t have any way yet to accept and print from computer data or to print digital images. So I had the idea of creating a texture with the dot matrix printout that could be superimposed (actually masked out of) straight color fields. For the text, I interviewed myself, keeping in mind the kinds of comments and questions my then-quite-unusual music so often elicited, and I wrote enough to be able to fill up both sides of the LP jacket with texture.” – Laurie Spiegel

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“For the recent CD and LP release, Tommy did a wonderful job of recreating the original design, and also of keeping me in the design loop. We worked closely together in doing the CD design, because it included various elements not present in the original LP album. On-disk printing, the tray card, the 24-page booklet, the UPC sticker — these were all additions Tommy made to the LP design he was recreating, and we coordinated our preferences and thoughts with each other closely on each of those, sending feedback and files back and forth quite a number of times.” – Laurie Spiegel

THE EXTRAS
“They said there was budget for only “1 color”, but in fact that meant only 1 pass of the press. I very much wanted full color, to reflect the aesthetic of the music, to capture a sense of the music. So I suggested, and the printer agreed to do, a split fountain of cyan, magenta and yellow. The colors were all a bit on the darkish side to make the white “print” readable, it having not been print at all but just absence of ink (to avoid another printing pass).

In the original LP edition, as the print run ran through, with the inks in the 3 areas of the trough mixing and blending more and more from the start to the finish of the edition, the colors blended more broadly. At the start of the press run, the 3 areas of color were relatively distinct, but by the end of the run, they were considerably mixed. So, although the jackets looked roughly the same, each was, to some slightly degree, unique. This continual variation of color blending was not duplicated in the re-issue, for obvious reasons.” – Laurie Spiegel

A Lull – Meat Mountain EP (Lujo Records)

SCAN & DESIGN BY NIGEL EVAN DENIS OF A LULL – nigelevandennis.com + electricheat.org

“I’ve been told that the album cover is so grotesque and intense that its hard to look at. I’m never a fan of shock for the sake of shock, so thankfully that’s not what we were going for. Although we feel we’ve created a very striking album cover.” - Nigel Evan Dennis of A Lull

 

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“We had come up with the idea for the album a bit from an inside joke. It was something said a couple years ago and when we started writing for the EP it was a bit of a working title that stuck. I think the album cover is much more interesting than the concept. I bought a chuck-eye steak and threw it on the scanner. That’s about it. Ha. Everything ended up digital of course, but it is literally the most raw medium I’ve worked with.” – Nigel Evan Dennis of A Lull

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Being an artist and a musician is like a dream come true. The creative process remains completely internal and completely interactive almost as much so as recording the music. The fun part about this band is that when i’m developing the art, i don’t consider my personal style or commercial portfolio. It makes every piece of art I do for the band almost always and entirely conceptual and experimental. It’s another extension of my art and I think it’s a totally fulfilling outlet. We collaborated on the back cover with Chicago artist Bill Connors for some wild illustration. He is a great artist and when I was starting to think about the back cover, it just felt right to show one of his pieces. Really great stuff.” – Nigel Evan Dennis of A Lull

Magic Touch x Sapphire Slows – Just Wanna Feel (100% Silk)

DESIGN & ARTWORK BY BOBBY HOULIHAN – bobbyhoulihan.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“Sapphire Slows released an album a while ago on Not Not Fun, and it was that record sleeve which served as my main inspiration. [Label owners] Amanda [Brown] and Britt [Brown] designed that sleeve using English and Japanese text, and I thought that was a good idea. The record is a collaboration, so the visual concept was to take the title Just Wanna Feel and create a block of text on both the front and the back that was composed of a roughly 50/50 ratio of English and Japanese. The only way to get this ratio somewhat balanced was to translate the Japanese phonetically. Had we done a more literal translation, the Japanese characters would have outweighed their English counterparts, and it would have been really wonky, which the record is not. The tracks are really clean and balanced. Very clear. Very positive. Nothing too complicated. I hope that is reflected in the art. I think it is.” – Bobby Houlihan

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Damon was cool with my idea of the text right away. He would send my work over to Kinuko in Japan,and she would okay the translations and make any corrections. She was very helpful in that regard.” – Bobby Houlihan

Man Forever – Pansophical-Cataract (Thrill Jockey Records / Northern Spy Records)

DESIGN BY DAN SCHECHTER – danschechter.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The album is an exploration of the sounds created by overlapping rhythms. The core of the performance is two drummers playing drum rolls simultaneously on a single drum. What results is a drone molded by the rhythms coming in and out of phase. It has the effect of creating sounds within sounds. I wanted to capture that unexpected sensation and reference some of that logic. I also wanted to build on the moon theme that has featured prominently in several Man Forever designs. The moon cube on the cover references both this structural process as well as the simple sensation of something so recognizable, distorted.” – Dan Schechter

“I just sent the record to Dan and asked him to come up with something cool. I think I told him I wanted it to really pop and be different from the typical cover… that’s it.” – John Colpitts of Man Forever

THE EXTRAS
“The type on the back cover is comprised of every weight of the typeface DIN overlaid atop one another. ‘Din’ has several meanings. A word meaning “awkward sound or racket” for us English speakers, it’s also a common Arabic term for faith, or more specifically, the way you live your life through faith. For Germans, it’s an acronym for their national board of standards and shorthand for the famous type endorsed by that board for their license plates. If you put all that together, we think it’s an apt metaphor for this project. The visual effect of superimposing the various weights is reminiscent of the overlapping rhythms in the music.” – Dan Schechter

Mike Shiflet – Merciless (Type Records)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE SHIFLET – michaelshiflet.com
ART DIRECTION BY JOHN TWELLS OF TYPE RECORDS – typerecords.com

“At one point in the process, John referred to the images as ‘body horror’, which was never my intent, but seems pretty apt in retrospect. Something about the way he said it has definitely stuck with me.” - Mike Shiftlet

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The album is the second in a series focused on the idea of the world as a machine, indifferent to humanity (see Hurricane Sandy for a recent example), and our attempts to exist within such a structure. The palm photos attempted to address several subplots in that narrative. Primarily the difference between how we see ourselves inside the construct of a world we’ve created and our actual existence.” – Mike Shiftlet

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“I took the photos myself, but I took some outside direction as the photographer. John Twells from the label (Type Records) offered a lot of great advice after I presented my original ideas to him.” – Mike Shiftlet

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“I’ve been using videos in live performances for the past few years. The images are similar to those on the Merciless and Sufferers covers, with a lot of macro photography involved.” – Mike Shiftlet

Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Stare (Erased Tapes)

DESIGN BY TORSTEN POSSELT OF FELD – feld.is

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The dot in the middle is actually a famous optical illusion. Stare at it long enough and you will figure it out — hence the title.” – Ólafur Arnalds

“The wonderful thing about working with Torsten Posselt on artwork is that you just give him the title, and he [can] just come up with an idea like this.” – Nils Frahm

“Listening to the release for the first time, I found myself staring at a little dark spot on the opposite wall. The longer I stared, the more surreal the spot became; it seemed to grow a halo, even if I knew that this was just my mind playing a little trick on me. So I started looking into some collections of probes into the moment-by-moment workings of our brain, trying to understand this phenomenon. At any given time, the brain is collecting, filtering, and analyzing information and, in response, performing countless intricate processes, some of which are automatic, some voluntary, some conscious, and some unconscious. The designed artwork functions as such a mind hack. By staring at the radial gradient, your mind tells you that it grows a brighter halo around it even though it is not there.” – Torsten Posselt

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“It is truly a great pleasure to work together with Nils [Frahm] and Ólafur [Arnalds], and I think we complement each other in a really nice way. When I approached Nils with the idea and some test prints, he instantly felt in love with it, and we spent some hours just staring at the little dark spot in the center of the gradient. I highly recommend doing that as well if you happen to have a physical copy of the release.

During the production we ended up staring at dozens of test prints of various gradient sizes, just like wolves staring at the moon.” – Torsten Posselt

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“I think Ólafur and I are very picky about visual aspects. We also work with light and stage designs, seeing that it [all] adds to the overall experience. If we could manipulate even the smell of our music, I am sure we would even design that. This is what control freaks tend to do.” – Nils Frahm

Pangaea – Release (Hessel Audio)

Artist unknown.

Peace – Delicious (Columbia Records)

DESIGN BY SAM COLDY STUDIO – samcoldy.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELLIS SCOTT – ellis-scott.com

Artist could not be reached for comment. Alternate version created by Coldy which was not used:

Stephan Mathieu & Sylvain Chauveau – Palimpsest (Schwebung)

DESIGN BY CARO MIKALEF FOR CABINA – espaciocabina.com.ar

“After some general talks with Stephan [Mathieu] about the album as a whole and being embedded with its music and lyrics… the album became a “lover’s discourse” and [possessed] a feeling of [looseness,] with an apocalyptic yet quiet introspective frame… Creating a totemic field [in which] the self could go to practice a devotional or grieving ritual, Palimpsest‘s cover represents this space.” - Caro Mikalef

“The two stones, as the lovers, also resembled to me a heart shape when I was composing them, in the funny random way images inspire meanings. But all these meanings were [the] essence of the design choices with no intention to become literal; there was no need [for] everybody [to] understand them in a linear way.” – Caro Mikalef

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“We work very closely with Stephan [Mathieau, and it] was important for me to receive his input regarding the album, have a platform of thoughts about the direction he wanted to give to the album and to his label Schwebung, and also to try to interpret his ways of conceiving the visual, aesthetic, etc. He is very active and creative regarding the design of his covers, and his mind is full of interesting visual ideas to be explored. The first instances of a design process were very open; we took them as visual thinking tanks that opened visual directions we both wanted to explore. Then with the chosen options, the design process got more and more fitting to specific expectations and needs. Feedback for me can be as interesting as exhausting sometimes; you realize how arbitrary things can be regarding the visual perception and you test the reception by others. I also had the feedback of my studio partner in Cabina, Coni, which is a valuable reference to me in graphic terms, but mainly what I need to point out is that the design process was very open and mediated by testing several instances and [was] not only my personal isolated work. We both had an interesting dialectic until we got to the final cover.” – Caro Mikalef

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“In general, I don’t use live visuals for my shows; ideally, they are performed on a great sound system in a pitch dark space. I’m using visual aspects in my installation work though, i.e. 16mm projection. Caro and I also built a large kinetic object made from optical lenses, filters and mirrors for a project.” – Stephan Mathieu

 

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Swahili Portland Musicians

Swahili – Swahili (Translinguistic Other)

ARTWORK BY XUA OF SWAHILI – www.facebook.com/XUAsound

“The cover of our record is one of my freak mandalas built upon around a Catholic stained glass church window. The story arc of the record deals with the transformation of a modern reality-based mind into a post-modern multiverse-based nervous system. We are never capable of truly shedding our old mind without losing sanity; like building the mandala upon a pre-existing structure, our minds must always grow out from where we have been to create our new self.” - XUA of Swahili

 

THE EXTRAS
“The piece was actually around for almost two years as we recorded and re-recorded the record. It was never intended to be the cover, but as we approached finishing the album, it became clear that this piece was closely tied to the material the whole time. I believe the original basis of the cover is a Christmas album of hymns featuring George Beverly Shea.” – XUA of Swahili

Vessel – Order Of Noise (Tri Angle Records)

Artist unknown.

Wild Nothing – Nocturne (Captured Tracks)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHAWN BRACKBILL – shawnbrackbill.com
LAYOUT BY RYAN MCCARDLE – ryanmccardle.com

“Jack Tatum (Wild Nothing) and I worked hand in hand on this release from the get-go. We went through various stages, starting with collage then going to photography until eventually ending up with this marbled paper idea. We liked what these marbled papers provoked emotionally. I like to think it represented a somewhat “nostalgia in motion.” The die-cut packaging, coupled with the multiple marbled papers, gives the listener a choice of what their cover will be. My hope was that they could place a visual connection with their audible experiences, especially since everyone will pull their own meanings and personal connections from Nocturne.” – Ryan McCardle

THE ALBUM COVER FOR THE XX’S 2009 RELEASE, XX

The xx – Coexist (Young Turks Records)

ARTWORK BY THE XX

[nextpage title="Classically-Influenced (13)"]

Aaradhna – Treble & Reverb // Best Coast – The Only Place // Black To Comm – Earth // David Byrne & St. Vincent – Love // Debruit – From The Horizon // Horrid Red – Celestial Joy // Hospitality – The Drift / Monkey // Om – Advaitic Songs // Para One – Passion // Peaking Lights – Lucifer // Steve Moore & Majeure – Brainstorm // Will Stratton – Post Empire // Xiu Xiu – The Air Force

 

A series of album covers drawing inspiration from artists and writers of the past. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

 

ALL CATEGORIES:

Aaradhna – Treble & Reverb (Dirty)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY SPECIAL PROBLEMS – specialproblems.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TROY GOODALL

“I really wanted a bold powerful portrait of Aaradhna to be on the cover. I love the matter of fact cover portraits of artists like John Cale, Bob Dylan and Alice Coltrane. Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda is a favourite for me. So I guess we were trying to do a modern take on that. A classic portrait of the singer/artist. Aaradhna has a beauty and power as a person and singer that we thought shouldn’t be ignored. We played around with a bit of hand-tinting parts of the photo afterwards, it helped push the photo into something a little more painterly.

For the typography and other vector patterns that appear throughout that album packaging, I wanted it to look like the kind of patterns you’d see on a Morton Subotnik record or [that of] some other early Electronic music pioneer. These were touch points in our thinking — elements to consider without falling into a recreation or something pastiche. It’s a modern take on something classic, like the album itself. You could maybe go as far as saying the warmth and organic nature of the photography contrasted against the hard vector shapes is our Treble & Reverb. The cover was about creating a new look for Aaradhna — one that was equally her and her personality but a side of her that her audience hadn’t seen before.” – Joel Kefali of Special Problems

Best Coast – The Only Place (Mexican Summer / Wichita Recordings)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY DAN SCHECHTER – danschechter.com
IN-STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID BLACK
LANDSCAPE ILLUSTRATION BY JESS ROTTER
BOOKLET LIVE PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER DOVGAN
BOOKLET 3D PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX MARKS

“Obviously, Best Coast is all about California. Everything from their name to their sound is influenced by the state. This album is no exception. The state is a backdrop behind all of the songs. Sometimes it’s a character. Sometimes it’s an ideal. Other times it’s a sweet and safe hiding place.

We wanted the album designs to capture this love for California… I found the illustration on the cover of a 1913 songbook for the state song of California, “I Love you California.” Even though the bear is the state animal of California, I was pretty surprised when I first saw it. The humor and sweetness of illustration seemed ahead of its time. I knew we had to include it somewhere on the album. Initially, it was on the back cover as a smaller illustration. Everybody was so drawn to it, though, that we eventually decided it would be perfect as the centerpiece of the cover. We redrew the bear and updated some details of the state. We wanted it to feel a bit more evocative of the golden age of California and [to] fit more in line with the bands previous artwork. It’s half-mascot, half-protector, and (humbly), kind of perfect.” – Dan Schechter

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“The design was really a collaboration between Jess Rotter and myself. Jess works at the band’s label Mexican Summer, but is also a close friend of the band. [She's an] incredible artist and illustrator in her own right[, and] we worked pretty closely on the concepts. She added an illustration of Highway 101 to the back cover and LP sleeve, and coordinated the photography for the back cover and the booklet included in the first run of LPs.” – Dan Schechter

MORE IMAGES ON DANSCHECHTER.COM

Black To Comm – Earth (De Stijl)

LAYOUT & DESIGN BY MARC RICHTER OF BLACK TO COMM
FILM STILL FROM HO TZU NYEN

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The Earth album contains studio versions of a live soundtrack we did for Singapore artist Ho Tzu Nyen’s film of the same name, so obviously we used images from the film for the album artwork. All the conceptual ideas had been realized musically (or in Nyen’s case, in the making of the film); doing the sleeve artwork was kind of a no-brainer. We were considering doing (fake) painted versions of the stills, but it wasn’t really necessary, since the whole film already looks like a huge classical painting.” – Marc Richter of Black To Comm

“This was a film still from a 42-minute film called EARTH, which I made. The film can be described as three continuous long takes that move in and out of a tableau vivant of 50 actors oscillating between sleep and consciousness. This particular film still that Black to Comm chose for the cover reveals the entire set — which is the site of an unknown catastrophe. In the next minute or so, golden light will permeate the scene and all 50 actors will come alive, and stare straight out at us. EARTH is my attempt to work through my obsession with the light and compositions of painters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Girodet and Géricault.” – Ho Tzu Nyen

THE EXTRAS
“The layout was then done by myself, partly inspired by the origin of the name of the De Stijl record label where the LP and CD has been released, so the lettering is very much influenced by the original De Stijl magazine from the 1920s… We only had very low resolution stills at hand that you wouldn’t normally use, but the fuzziness actually added to the mysterious quality of the images.” – Marc Richter of Black To Comm

David Bryne & St. Vincent – Love This Giant (4AD / Todo Mundo)

The album cover is a play on Beauty and the Beast, and a strangely appropriate interview with The Daily Beast reveals more:

Debruit – From The Horizon (Civil Music)

ARTWORK BY MARKUS HOFKO RAINBOW MONKEY – rainbowmonkey.de

“In the first place, it was just about creating a surreal landscape which would relate to the abstract elements of [Debruit's] three preceding EP covers. Débruit asked for some sort of African influence in the design since his album is strongly based around West African music. The idea to do a homage to [Rene] Magritte’s The False Mirror came later in the process and locked the image concept in.” – Markus Hofko

RENE MAGRITTE – THE FALSE MIRROR

THE EXTRAS
“The first press of the vinyl version included golden records, which added to the already spectacular make up.” – Markus Hofko

Horrid Red – Celestial Joy (HOLIDAYS)

DESIGN BY EDMUND XAVIER
PAINTING BY ALEKSANDRA EKSTER – wikipedia.org/wiki/aleksandra_ekster

“Co-opting found art for post-punk graphics has roots in the late ’70s heyday, but you can trace the thread back through hippie & before that Dada. We are consciously casting fine art down into the pit with our low art music & lifestyle choices. We took this bacchanalian image to represent the urge to create music, our reason for living… We celebrate it with gentle vandalism.” - Edmund Xavier

Hospitality – The Drift / Monkey (Merge Records)

DESIGN BY MAGGIE FOST
ADDITIONAL CONCEPT BY NATHAN MICHEL OF HOSPITALITY

“Our main idea was to combine two very different design ideas: the painting of Katherine of Aragon, which is from around 1525 and the design for the Santa Cruz Duane Peters Skateboard, from the early ’80s. Maggie Fost, the designer, made those two elements work beautifully… We wanted something that would really stand out, even in thumbnail form. I think this one does that for sure. Also, I own a Duane Peters skateboard. I’ve had it since I was a kid.” – Nathan Michel of Hospitality

Om – Advaitic Songs (Drag City)

COVER ART BY UNKNOWN
INTERIOR CREST BY DAVID V. DANDREA – dvdandrea.com

The band declined to comment on the album artwork and would like to keep it open to interpretation.

A note from David V. Dandrea states that the cover is a traditional Greek Icon painting, though he is uncertain whether it is a contemporary interpretation or a vintage original.

This record was featured on our Psychoactive Soundscapes: Top 20 Mind-Bending Albums For 2012 article.

Para One – Passion (Marble Music)

DESIGN BY MUSEUM STUDIO – museumstudio.se

Artists could not be reached for comment.

“The colors are slightly different on the US pressing, and if you look closely the first press cover is all matte except for the center of the font is glossy. We borrowed that idea from ’80s Polydor dance sleeves, particularly this Yoko Ono Walking On Thin Ice EP.” – Peaking Lights

Peaking Lights – Lucifer (Mexican Summer / Weird World)

ARTWORK BY ROBERT BEATTY – remainsstreet.com
INSIDE ARTWORK BY LEIF PODHAJSKY – leifpodhajsky.com

“The band came to me with a very crude sketch of the word ‘Lucifer’ as a neon sign plugged into the wall. They wanted to remove any Satanic connotations from the word and wanted it to evoke its original meaning of ‘Bringer of Light’.” - Robert Beatty

“A rule of thumb for us is that we always try to make something slightly reflective of the past. We drew from Cluster and Isley Brothers particularly in the final decision with the font. One other rule of thumb is that we make sure there is no bar code on the front or back, and Mexican Summer and Weird World were cool enough to let us approach the cover as pure artistic expression in itself.” – Peaking Lights

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“[We] pretty much knew we wanted to have Robert Beatty do the cover of a record at some point; his art is amazing (so are his bands). I sent him a very loose sketch which had the Lucifer plugged In to a wall socket. He did a mock up and it was fine, but then we were really just vibin on the font he made; we thought it was stronger just as that. That was pretty much it — [plus] some loose stuff with size and color, but Robert is so good at what he does you can kind of let him run with it.” – Peaking Lights

THE EXTRAS
The insert was done by Leif Podhajsky — also an insane artist! He did our remix record on Domino’s cover [also]. With the insert, we had less of a clear idea of what we wanted, so that made it harder; there were a lot of revisions… but that was mainly us not being as clear in idea outside of wanting some sort of mandala.” – Peaking Lights

Steve Moore & Majeure – Brainstorm (Temporary Residence Ltd)

DRAWING & MANIPULATIONS BY ALEXANDER BURKART OF THE ZONDERS

“I had a half-baked idea that I wanted the artwork to look sort of like the cover of a ’70s-edition Carlos Castaneda book, specifically The Second Ring of Power. Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part earthly, part spiritual. Bright colors, striking imagery. Alex had recently finished the artwork for my Lovelock album, and I thought he’d do a great job with this project as well.” - Steve Moore

 

“Alex is very easy and fun to work with. I remember seeing him post a photo of the Mano del Desierto, a large sculpture of a hand reaching out of the Atacama Dessert in Chile. I mentioned to him that this could be a cool basis for the cover art and a few days later he was finished. Nailed it on the first attempt.” – Steve Moore

Will Stratton – Post Empire (Talitres Records)

ARTWORK BY JARED RAGLAND – jaredragland.com
LAYOUT BY WILL STRATTON

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“Once I had decided that the title was going to be Post-Empire, I gave Jared free reign with that information in mind, and he came up with a few different images, all of which had sort of palimpsestic qualities that appealed to me in other work that he has done. I chose the image of the rider because it seemed the most singularly focused of the things he made, and it was vaguely nationalistic, which I liked. So, from my perspective, it was a process of elimination.” – Will Stratton

“I can’t make work without some set of rules or parameters, so each of my collages are created within certain conceptual boundaries and employ images from specific image archives. The collage used for Post-Empire comes from a series of works I made a few years ago that were inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poem, ‘Charge of the Light Brigade,’ and primarily built from photographs made by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War (a war that – much like our own recent ones – was largely unpopular and highly criticized).” – Jared Ragland

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Originally the cover image was a little more complicated, with a bird on the rider’s head and I think some other elements that I asked Jared to pare down. And I ended up messing with the hue of the image so that the background and foreground were different colors; it started out sepia. Aside from that, the image was entirely Jared’s.” – Will Stratton

“Will sent two early demos of the album so I could respond to what he’d recorded. His music is really intricate and beautiful, so I initially wanted to make something that could visually represent that beauty. And honestly, my initial attempts were complete failures. Fortunately though, Will’s music is more than just pretty melodies, and this particular set of songs is full of allegory and metaphor from which I could draw ideas. At some point during the process, Will announced that the record would be called Post-Empire, and I immediately thought of this collage from the ‘Light Brigade’ series. I rearranged a few things, sent it to Will, and he thought it was right for the record.” – Jared Ragland

2006 ORIGINAL

Xiu Xiu – The Air Force Reissue (Polyvinyl Records)

DESIGN BY JOE STEWART
PAINTING BY UNKNOWN (1600S PAINTER – “I saw at an art exhibit in Torino in 2005 called HELL.” – Jamie Stewart)

“The record is called The Air Force. It is about how the air force murders the most people in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but the murderers are the least accountable emotionally and morally for what they have done. They just press a button, cum in their pants and an entire village is erased. There is a bizarre link between the military and Christianity. Some of the greatest horrors in humanity are committed by people who claim to be devote believers in Jesus. The cover is about how Jesus must feel about this.” - Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu

 

“My brother designs of our record covers. This is a reissue so we wanted a different cover, but I still wanted to use the central image. This was all I told him and just went for it. Blacker than black was the answer. I love that I can put it in his hands and he always makes something wonderful that I would never have thought of.” – Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu

[nextpage title="Narrative & Symbolic (14)"]

Baroness – Yellow & Green // Coheed & Cambria – Ascension // The Dandy Warhols – This Machine // Dawnbringer – Into The Lair Of The Sun God // Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker // EARTH – Angels of Darkness & Demons of Light II // The Fall of Every Season – Amends // The Fixx – Beautiful Friction // Guardian Alien – See the World Given to a One Love Entity (Part 1) // mewithoutYou – Ten Stories // Murder Construct – Results // Shackleton – Music For The Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs // Sigh – In Somniphobia // Sleep – Dopesmoker

This series of album covers is not only visually-striking but possesses intrinsic narrative qualities, whether they be filled with symbolic references or residing in deeply-constructed mythological worlds. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

ALL CATEGORIES:

“Normally, I would find the literal reinterpretation of themes heavy-handed and problematic; however, since I make the art for Baroness as well as play the music, I am able to keep our visual and sonic aesthetics quite close, often running directly parallel. The tricky obstacle is capturing the right atmosphere and tenor of our music, through color, tone and visual metaphor. What is the color or shape of reflection? Of anxiety? Of struggle?” – John Dyer Baizley of Baroness

Baroness – Yellow & Green (Relapse Records)

ARTWORK & ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN DYER BAIZLEY OF BARONESS

“I tried to accomplish a great deal making the Y&G cover artwork. It has always been important that I make album covers for Baroness that the other guys in the band can relate to. Each of our record covers have bits and pieces of stories that we can each relate to, [like] inside stories and jokes which only we can figure out. Additionally, the visual themes must syncopate with the song [and] album themes… I try to embed themes within the art that stand independent of the music, in order to hint at the larger project, which will become apparent only when looking at all the albums together in the future. I’ve found that the best way to tackle a visual project of this girth is to drape everything in heavy symbolism. My artistic tendency towards allegory has permitted me to work outside-but-close-to the boundaries of figurative, realistic work without (hopefully) verging on fantasy. It’s a visual filter that suits my artwork well.” - John Dyer Baizley of Baroness

 

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“I spend a fair amount of time researching my concepts, in order to visually interpret them in a compelling, if somewhat obscured way. If I am too direct, the work suffers from over-explanation; if I am too obtuse, from being too fantastic. I often make reference to classical works and well-established paradigms so that I might offer a compositional foundation which the viewer feels a connection with — from which they may dredge out some new perspective or a deeper, more idiosyncratic understanding. The rest of the band is kept in-the-loop with this process. After all, they have to feel the same way about the art that I do. These records are part of our legacy, and we should all feel connected to the project. Devotion to the full-scope of our creativity is important to our survival and development.” – John Dyer Baizley of Baroness

THE EXTRAS
“Color is a tricky device for me to wrestle with. I don’t have any natural aptitude for it. Like all of my perceived weaknesses, it has become the focus of my artistic battle. Thusly, we have based entire record titles on color, and there is an abundance of time spent developing the right chromatic look for each album cover. More often than not, I use my creative muscle to attack my own shortcomings rather than developing my proven strengths. It is unsurprising, with respect to the fact that I am an artist, that so much of Baroness’ lyrical themes refer to colors and tones; that seems like an inevitability. However, I will take the stance now that future Baroness records will no longer have chromatic titles. That idea has run its course.” – John Dyer Baizley of Baroness

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“We’ve been considering adding a visual component to our live show for some time now, though we haven’t actually seen any of our ideas come to light. Look for something new in our live production soon.” – John Dyer Baizley of Baroness

Coheed & Cambria – Ascension (Hundred Handed / Everything Evil)

COVER ART BY HEIIDI TAILLEFER – heiditaillefer.com
BOOKLET ACRYLIC PAINTINGS BY NATHAN SPOOR – nathanspoor.com
GRAPHICS & PACKAGE DESIGN BY BILL SCOVILLE – scov.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The story is like an epic tale of a man (called Afterman) who heads into space to explore an energy band fueled by souls. Among these souls, he incorporates five into his suit, which fuel himself as well. Each of these souls — four men and one woman; three negative and two good — have personality traits unto themselves. One of them was once bad and turned to the good in the afterworld, so to speak. This Afterman heads up for a time that escapes him, since I guess interdimensionally, time ceases to be perceived, and after he comes back, he finds that his wife is deceased. He was so caught up in his explorations that he neglected her utterly and feels this huge pang of remorse and regret.” – Heiidi Taillefer

“There are lots of philosophical and thematic elements in Claudio [Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria]‘s series of narratives. It’s pretty complex, but if you follow the band and what Claudio has been doing, it’ll make a lot of sense. He told me about the concept and about what each song would mean or should include before I heard any of the music. Between recording sessions, we would talk about the ideas since I would keep sending over drawings of what he might be looking for. Once we got even a part of something right, I would then keep doing new pictures until we got the final idea approved. Some of them were really quick and some others we went through dozens of drawings until we got there.” – Nathan Spoor

The Dandy Warhols – This Machine (Beat The World / The End Records)

COVER PRODUCTION BY STEVEN BIRCH
DESIGN, LAYOUT & PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN GOTHMAN – seangothman.com
COVER PAINTING BY HICKORY MERTSCHING – hickorymertsching.com
COVER PAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN KIVITKA – kivitkaphotography.com

“Peter Holmstrom and Courtney Taylor-Taylor [of The Dandy Warhols] each expressed certain elements they wanted to see in the painting,specifically their guitar displayed on a stump. Courtney Taylor-Taylor sketched out a doodle of the rough layout on a envelope, and we discussed trying to create a very regional Northwest landscape with a woodsy feel as the backdrop. Also, with Mt. St. Helens in the far distance. The antlers represent the by-product/refuse of This Machine; the guitar is the tool which creates the means to the end, and the ruffed grouse, which is found in the foothills of the Cascades and Coastal Range, makes a drumming sound with its wing movement; it symbolizes the music by taking flight into the aural senses and audio.” – Hickory Mertsching

Dawnbringer – Into the Lair of the Sun God (Profound Lore)

Artist unknown.

“We are very particular about our sound and whilst Widowmaker was a very relaxed process. We recorded at least three drum versions, at least three guitar versions and three bass tracks, in the end we double tracked the bass, it needed to sound like molten lava. A lot of drugs and a lot of fucking insanity. The album was recorded between our trips out to Portugal for SWR Fest, Holland for Roadburn and Maryland for Deathfest, as well as a month long US tour. There are vast portions of the recording that no one actually remembers, a lot of getting fucked up on places, boats and in the back of vans, but that’s what this is about for us. A total exorcism, the music is a reflection of the chaos that unfolds wherever we go. We also recorded a live backing track for the entire record inside the [Sedlec] Ossuary in Czech Republic.” – T of Dragged Into Sunlight

Dragged Into Sunlight – Widowmaker (Prosthetic Records)

ARTWORK BY SINDRE FOSS SKANCKE – sindrefossskancke.com

“Dragged Into Sunlight works with like-minded individuals on everything we do. The minds out there who share a very rare commonality with the raw components behind our sound [are] a very niche mindset. Sindre really delivered what we had expected and without any direction, other than the music.” - T of Dragged Into Sunlight

 

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“For me, as the artist who visualizes the music, it is of course important to get to know the ideas behind the music. We had lots of conversations before I started the physical work, and I of course listened to the album a lot. It was special working with Widowmaker; all of the visuals were done in an intense month isolated in my cabin. The ideas behind the album and the music corresponded well with my isolation at that point… I tried to nail the images that got into my head while listening to the album over and over, scraped down into whatever media that felt right for visualising the reality.” – Sindre Foss Skancke

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“I got a lot of information before I started, then I would go to the city once a week and email my progress. I do not really work as a designer, so if I am going to work with a band, it has to be a band with both music and a vision that interests me. Good music needs custom visuals, and seeing this slice of music as a conceptual piece of sound, it would also need something that fits well visually, but also challenges it. I think we managed that.” – Sindre Foss Skancke

“We worked very closely together on an intellectual level and allowed an unspoken bond to grow. It comes from a creative drive innate with in both Dragged Into Sunlight and Sindre as an artist. When you are that passionate about a common vision, it’s almost telepathic, and the vision becomes a reality.” – T of Dragged Into Sunlight

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“Widowmaker has a 40-minute video which has not yet been released. It is produced by Dwid Hellion [of] Integrity. Integrity are as much of an influence as Eyehategod and all of the other raw to the bone artists out there. It has been our honor to work with so many great artists on Widowmaker. Only time can tell us what Widowmaker will look like; just like it has a sound and vision, it also has a form.” – T of Dragged Into Sunlight

EARTH – Angels of Darkness & Demons of Light II (Southern Lord Records)

ARTWORK & ILLUSTRATION BY STACEY ROZICH

A visual continuation of Angels of Darkness & Demons of Light I. You can also read our interview with artist Stacey Rozich.

The Fall of Every Season – Amends (Grau)

ARTWORK BY ROBERT HOYEM – attheends.com
BACK COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIM KVALHEIM – kimvalheim.no

“This is actually the third shot at making the cover for the Amends. I’ve heard snippets and songs of the album over the last five years, so the album has been in the oven for quite some time. The initial ideas for the cover can be found on my blog, but after some time I decided to recreate the entire artwork — both to better reflect the music and lyrics and give the album a fresh boost. The artwork in its entirety is actually quite direct, and illustrates different aspects of the lyrics without any interpretation, more or less as an experiment to see how this kind of a cover would look in a more old school, illustrative approach.” – Robert Hoyem

“I feel that the grand scope of the album’s sound was reflected particularly well in the end result. It’s huge. Lyrically, the album contains a lot of very visual metaphors that work well as direct illustrations in the art.” – Marius Strand of The Fall Of Every Season

The Fixx – Beautiful Friction (Kirtland Records)

PAINTING BY GEORGE UNDERWOOD – georgeunderwood.com
ART DIRECTION BY TOMMY MOORE

“When The Fixx asked me to create an image for the cover, I had just finished working on a big painting called ‘I Talk With The Spirits’. I was really pleased they asked me because I had a good working relationship with them from the past with Reach The Beach, Phantoms, and Calm Animals. With the painting, the thought process was: lost civilisation, island of the dead, spiritual beings being visited or observed by another generation as if they were witnessing a religious experience [or] phenomenon. Then they said it was going to be called Beautiful Friction, and I realised that my painting could be interpreted exactly into that title. So I cropped it down until I thought it worked as a record sleeve.” – George Underwood

Guardian Alien – See the World Given to a One Love Entity (Part 1) (Thrill Jockey Records)

PAINTING BY TURNER WILLIAMS OF GUARDIAN ALIEN – turnerwilliamsjr.com
CONCEPT BY GREG FOX

“I was most interested in interpreting [Greg's] dream in my way. It was a new sort of collaboration for me.” - Turner Williams of Guardian Alien

 

“I was approached by the guy on the record cover; he showed me the album title and the art, which was him showing me the album title and the art. The idea was to basically just follow those instructions and not think about it too much otherwise. It was not a dream. I was fully awake when it happened. It is important to me that this is made clear. Calling it a dream suggests somehow that it didn’t really happen, and discounts it as not being as genuine of an experience as what we consider regular real life or whatever. I was fully conscious and completely stupefied by the experience, and to this day, I’m not completely sure what happened, mostly because I’m not sure how I feel about the whole alien phenomena in general.” – Greg Fox of Guardian Alien

MORE IMAGES AT CHARLIEWAGERS.COM

mewithoutYou – Ten Stories (Pine Street)

LAYOUT & DESIGN BY CHARLIE WAGERS OF THREE BEARS DESIGN – charliewagers.com
PAINTINGS BY VASILY KAFANOV, COMMISSIONED BY MEWITHOUTYOU – kafanov.com
ART DIRECTION BY AARON WEISS AND MIKE ALMQUIST – lookingiswrong.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The album artwork is meant to directly follow the storyline of the music contained in the album. The album is about a 19th century circus train that crashes in the mountains in Montana, and some of the animals escape. Each “story” is about the animals, where they go and what they do. For the artwork, Vasily Kafanov was commissioned to make a painting for each song, and another for the cover. The album artwork ties each painting to the songs, in such a way that it feels like an old, worn-out storybook from the same era.” – Charlie Wagers

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“I love working with mewithoutYou because they are unlike any other band when it comes to artwork. They are always very involved in the artwork process. I would talk to Aaron Weiss (the band’s singer) or Michael Almquist (manager) at least once a day to check-in on the process. It’s great working with a band that is this involved; they are very critical, which is always pushing things to look their best. They also were consistently providing me with great ideas.” – Charlie Wagers

THE EXTRAS
“Vasily made 14 paintings, while I handled all other mediums. I did a lot of scanning old books and paper, to get the proper textures and little flourishes to add to the pages. I also spent a lot of time with the typography; namely the typefaces Mrs. Eaves & Dunelm, slightly distressing the letters to have the appearance that they were printed on an old printing press…”

“This was definitely a non-conventional album to create the packaging for. We did three different versions: a deluxe box-set that contained a double LP’s, a gatefold-packaged 7″, 18-page storybook and alternate-art CD. As well as a gatefold “standard” edition LP on colored vinyl, and a CD, both which came with a 12-page lyric booklet. And also an accompanying 7″ single for February 1878, with the b-side Four Fires… My favorite part of this package was the etching on the D-side of the deluxe-edition vinyl. It was my first chance to tackle illustrating for a vinyl etching, and I wanted it to follow the contours of a round record. The result was several of the stories’ animals, strung along in a circle around the record.” – Charlie Wagers

Murder Construct – Results (Relapse Records)

DESIGN BY ORION LANDAU – orionlandau.tumblr.com

“The title Results was based on Capitalism’s need to be constantly be expanding or it collapses in on itself [and its] need to show a quarterly profit to shareholders at the expense of long-term growth and human welfare. We settled on the decayed Eye Of Province as a symbol of the collapses due to the current systems of conducting business. It was really fun making this Masonic symbol that we all see daily into this decayed rotting pile of corpses!” - Orion Landau

“Orion kept us in the loop every step of the way. We initially had some other ideas for the artwork which weren’t fully fleshed out, and when Orion showed us what he was working on, we knew we were looking at what I would consider to be cover art of the year, haha.” – Leon of Murder Construct

The box set contains three 12″s, one CD, and one 12″ x 12″ booklet of artwork from Clough.

Shackleton – Music For The Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs (Woe To The Septic Heart)

ARTWORK BY ZEKE CLOUGH – zekeclough.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“It was partly inspired by the text by Tenfold Vengeance that was included in the release, by a conversation with Sam about the nature of a possible future apocalypse and by [his] own thoughts on time… The time aspect’s represented by the characters marching through the lens of the present. This was meant to show time as a way of defining the possible permutations of the past, (would have, should have, could have) and the potential of the future — pretty much my frustration that the potential of a lifespan is inevitably defined by the passage through time.” – Zeke Clough

“[The passage by Tenfold Vengeance] concerned a letter to his granddaughter who lives in the year 2065. Zeke told me that he had been working on themes which seem to overlap with the basic concept. We thought that it would be good to try to tie this all together with one package. From this early foundation, Zeke had free range but had input from Vengeance Tenfold’s words to interpret as he felt fitting… I do not really have a rule when it comes to Zeke’s stuff as he has his own fertile imagination and great ability. His sensibilities tie in with my own, pretty much. The only thing that I am a stickler for is aesthetic consistency for each series. This means that the artwork for this release needed to be stylistically connected to the previous Woe To The Septic Heart release and that these releases in turn needed to be stylistically different again from the Skull Disco releases.” – Sam Shackleton of Shackleton

THE EXTRAS
“There was also a vague story about charactors escaping a churning, primordial landscape by travelling into the bottom of a volcano. In the bottom of the volcano is relative tranquility and they are confronted by the time-defining gate/lens.” – Zeke Clough

Sigh – In Somniphobia (Candlelight Records)

ARTWORK & CONCEPT BY ELIRAN KANTOR – elirankantor.com

“Music-wise, it’s quite a surreal record with its main focus being nightmares, and I think each listener will end up with an entirely different experience so it would be a shame to ruin all the mystique with giving my own perspective of it and what led to it. The plot is quite simple to figure out anyway. I’ve read some great theories online from Sigh fans, weaving various political conspiracies and secret meanings. And these things will be in the back of their minds when listening to the record, which is fantastic.” - Eliran Kantor

 

“All I did was to tell Eliran that the album concept was nightmare and to give him some demo tracks and the lyrics. I really did not think I had to give him further instruction or anything, as I 100% trusted him as an artist and I was completely sure that he would understand what kind of visions I had in my mind. We worked together for the previous album, Scenes from Hell, so I knew leaving almost everything to him would generate the best result.” – Mirai Kawashima of Sigh

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“Visuals are always very important live. We use a lot of fire and blood gimmicks and it’s not the same old pyro machine or anything. Most of those gimmicks are handmade by us, and I’m sure people have never seen a show like ours before.” – Mirai Kawashima of Sigh

THE EXTRAS
“All I’m willing to give out is a small silly trivia detail: in a classic Kind Diamond-like manner, the pregnant queen is based on my grandma. Nightmarish enough?” – Eliran Kantor

Sleep – Dopesmoker Reissue (Southern Lord Records Records)

ARTWORK BY ARIK ROPER – arikroper.com

“The goal was to accurately portray in visual terms the imagery from the lyrics of Dopesmoker. The song is an epic musical masterpiece and the lyrics tell an epic story. It’s science fiction in a sense, but more than that, it’s also a spiritual journey, a meditative journey of sound. Though I’d done two previous covers for different versions of this album, this is the definitive one, the one conceived by the band and myself. It serves as a visual map for the music, a window into that universe. The rest of the world can be viewed with eyes closed and headphones on.” - Arik Roper

[nextpage title="Photography & Manipulations (18)"]

UNMANIPULATED PHOTOGRAPHY

MANIPULATED PHOTOGRAPHY

Acid Pauli – mst // Anberlin – Vital // The Antlers – Undersea // Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man // Bomber Jackets – Centurion Travel 7″ // Callers – Reviver // Chromatics – Kill For Love // Clock Opera – Ways To Forget // Crystal Castles – III // Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes // Miniature Tigers – Mia Pharoah // Naomi Punk – The Feeling // Paloma Faith – Fall to Grace // Ponderosa – Pool Party // Raime – Quarter Turns Over A Living Line // Savior Adore – Our Nature // Scissor Sisters – Magic Hour // Sleigh Bells – Reign of Terror

 

All photography-related album covers are thumbnailed from least manipulated to most manipulated. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

 

ALL CATEGORIES:

Acid Pauli – mst (Clown & Sunset)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAPERO
DESIGN BY STEFAN BOGNER

“I was looking through photos with Capero, and we selected some that we might wanna use for the artwork. This one instantly touched me in a strong way, and I felt there was some kind of connection between the picture and the music. Nevertheless, we sent all the pics we selected to [label co-owner Nicolas Jaar]. Guess what? He chose the same picture to be his favorite. So I sent it to my friend Stefan Bogner who is an amazing designer — one of those hard-to-find creatives who really know how to reduce to the maximum. He made some drafts, and we all liked the one which is upside down, [with] the little picture reversed, so that you don’t really get it at first sight. For me that’s a graphical synonym of what I try to make with music as well.” – Acid Pauli

Anberlin – Vital (Universal Republic)

LAYOUT, DESIGN, ART DIRECTION, COLLAGES BY JORDAN BUTCHER – workofself.com
ART DIRECTION BY NATE YOUNG OF ANBERLIN
CUSTOM TYPOGRAPHY BY DARREN BOOTH – darrenbooth.com
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON FEAVER – feaverishphotography.com
BAND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BLISS BRAOUDAKIS – blisskatherine.com

“Visuals are almost just as important to me as the music. Videos to stage production, it all has to create a vibe that fits the music.” - Nate Young of Anberlin

 

“Nate and I are like two peas in a pod on the artwork, usually. Our working relationship has grown to be a little direction up front, and then I’m sort of let loose. Usually when we disagree, we make fun of each other a bunch and then the outcome is much better. We have a unique kind of deal to be friends first and work on stuff like this when the time arises, so it’s actually a lot more fun for me than a usual package, and I tend to get a little more invested in Anberlin releases. For better or worse.” – Jordan Butcher

THE EXTRAS
“All the [interior] collage photos are the same girl. The gradients and color blocks happened by accident during the layout process… But I ended up letting them be the (in my opinion) main piece of the art… They kind of differentiate the different versions of the record that are out there.” – Jordan Butcher

“We only pressed the album on two 10″ instead of the standard 12″, and side D is fully smooth, with no etching. I’ve personally never seen that done. I’m not saying it’s groundbreaking, but it’s close. Ha.” – Nate Young

The Antlers – Undersea EP (ANTI-/Transgressive Records)

Artist unknown.

Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man (Parlophone)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN MCGINLEY – ryanmcginley.com

Artist could not be reached for comment.

Bomber Jackets – Centurion Travel 7″ (Night School)

ARTWORK BY BILL KOULIGAS

Artist could not be reached for comment.

Callers – Reviver (Partisan Records)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DERRICK BELCHAM – astorytoldwell.com
DESIGN BY SARA LUCAS, RYAN SEATON & LAUREN WOLFF

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“Our last album cover for Life of Love in 2010 was a 4×4 foot colorful oil painting done by our friend Douglas McQueen, an artist living in Brooklyn. We really love how that turned out as it was very appropriate for that record — but for Reviver, we went in the complete opposite direction. With the photograph we chose, we wanted to present the album as something extremely personal and close to the skin. When creating the artwork for our albums, we’re not driven by branding and we want the album that we created to dictate the visual aesthetics, not necessarily the personality of the band or its members. This might backfire for us as we know that branding and icons sell these days. But since branding does not drive our sound or our writing, it’s not going to dictate our cover art either. Oops…” – Sara Lucas of Callers

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Initially, we had a very different idea of what the cover was going to look like and spent a very long time ruminating over it. The day before the artwork was due for the record, we realized that our initial idea wasn’t going to work. We called up Derrick Belcham and told him what we wanted. We went to his house after working all day, and he spent an hour getting the shot. It was very simple in the end and was finished in only a matter of hours. A friend of ours who is a designer, Lauren Wolff, helped us out with the type and placement afterwards. The cover was put together in one day… All I can say is you can spend months thinking about a cover and trying to execute it, totally fail and then spontaneously make it happen in a matter of hours.” – Sara Lucas of Callers

Chromatics – Kill For Love (Italians Do It Better)

DESIGN BY JOHNNY JEWEL OF CHROMATICS – facebook.com/chromaticsband

The band declined to comment and would prefer to keep the album artwork open to interpretation.

Clock Opera – Ways To Forget (Moshi Moshi / Island Records)

ART DIRECTION BY RICHARD ROBINSON – richardrobinsondesign.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MADS PERCH – mads-perch.com

“[Me] and Mads Perch had an extensive meeting with the band [to discuss] directions for the campaign. They had a clear idea of how they wanted the record to feel — not so much of a finished visual, more the message they wanted to convey. They had references of Picasso paintings, distorted screens, vibrant colours and movement.

We took this on board and were really interested in the movement aspect, and particularly the work of Gjon Mili. Having experimented with multiple exposure techniques before, it was a great opportunity to push it further. The band are friends of a group of dancers called The New Movement Collective, and they were happy to come along and let us shoot them for the project. We had four dancers in total and over a day-long shoot, had them perform routines [we captured] as we went. Once we’d done the shoot, the band felt that it needed more emotion and colour, so I worked extensively processing the images to create a more layered, textured piece that had more of a painted quality, which ultimately reflected the music more accurately.” – Richard Robinson

Crystal Castles – III (Fiction Records / Polydor Records)

ORIGINAL COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMUEL ARANDA – samuelaranda.net

The main image used on this album cover was manipulated for III, but a description of the original image is as follows:

“Fatima al-Qaws cradles her son Zayed (18), who is suffering from the effects of tear gas after participating in a street demonstration, in Sanaa, Yemen, on 15 October. Ongoing protests against the 33-year-long regime of authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh escalated that day. Witnesses said that thousands marched down Zubairy Street, a main city thoroughfare, and were fired on when they reached a government checkpoint near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some demonstrators retreated, others carried on and were shot at again. At least 12 people were killed and some 30 injured. Ms. Qaws—who was herself involved in resistance to the regime—found her son after a second visit to look for him, among the wounded at a mosque that was being used as a temporary field hospital. Zayed remained in a coma for two days after the incident. He was injured on two further occasions, as demonstrations continued. On 23 November, President Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia, and signed an agreement transferring power to his deputy, Abdurabu Mansur Hadi. Saleh’s rule ended formally when Hadi was sworn in as president, following an election, on 25 February 2012.”

Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes (Warp Records)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY STEPHEN SERRATO OF B+ – sserrato.info
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN KITCHENS

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Miniature Tigers – Mia Pharoah (Modern Art)

Artist unknown.

Naomi Punk – The Feeling (Captured Tracks)

ARTWORK BY NAOMI PUNK

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Paloma Faith – Fall To Grace (Epic Records)

DESIGN & LAYOUT BY CHRISTOPHER J. PORTER – iseesea.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID STANDISH – davidstandish.co.uk

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Ponderosa – Pool Party (New West Records)

ARTWORK by ROB CARMICHAEL OF SEEN STUDIO – seenstudio.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEXANDER SEMENOV – clione.ru

“We wanted the music to drive the visual concept, so a psychedelic image for the album cover seemed fitting. However, we wanted to stay away from anything created in Photoshop. We felt that there was enough of that type of album art out there and didn’t want to do something that was already overdone. JT discovered the work of oceanographer and marine biologist, Alexander Semenov, specifically the jellyfish image and he was really passionate about using it as the cover. The rest of the band loved it. It was psychedelia in nature, it was a no-brainer. Fortunately Alexander is an awesome dude and granted us permission to use the image.

This species is the lion’s mane jellyfish and was photographed in the White Sea.” – Jeremiah Romo of Ponderosa

Raime – Quarter Turns Over A Living Line (Blackest Ever Black)

Artist unknown.

Savior Adore – Our Nature (Popular Recordings)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEAH ECKLIND
DIGITAL PAINTING BY DOUG OLSEN – dougolsen.com
DESIGN, LAYOUT & TYPOGRAPHY BY JULIAN BIALOWAS – julianbialowas.com

“The album has a very specific focus on human nature, or the fabric of any being for that matter — specifically a narrative between a girl and a supernatural monster. The arc of the story develops as our two characters meet, interact, eventually coexist and then chaos ensues as they see too much of one another. We found the original photograph re-blogged on a friend’s website, and it immediately struck us that it was a perfect fit. It took the focus of the two characters but framed it in a supernatural sense so perfectly. From there, we built upon the particle nature of the environment for the rest of the album art as well.” - Savior Adore

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“The creation of the artwork was pretty complex for a few reasons, so we ended up working very closely with the artist(s) throughout the process. Unfortunately, there was no high res version of the photograph anymore, so it had to be re-enhanced and painted digitally. The cover is not simply a photograph, and wouldn’t have been possible without the work of three artists. It’s a digital painting of a photograph and then the typography and “circle frame” were created by a graphic designer. Leah Ecklind is the photographer, Doug Olsen is the painter, and Julian Bialowas was the graphic designer. We worked pretty closely with them, but for the most part, they perfectly captured what we were hoping for at each step.” – Savior Adore

THE EXTRAS
“We just found it so interesting and inspiring that we found the art and the artists we worked with all online. First we stumbled across the photograph on a friends page, then it took two weeks to track down the photographer, Leah (also would not have been possible without social networking), and then we ended up asking Julian to do the graphic design (we had followed his Tumblr page all year).” – Savior Adore

“I really wanted to focus on the lyrics and typography for this album. So often, lyrics are tucked away in books and miss out on the action, typically being set in standard 12-point, left-aligned format. With this layout. it’s the first thing listeners see before they even get to the disc… each and every line you see in the interior panels was 100% hand set, line by line, word by word, letter by letter. And believe it or not, it was done twice! (The original final designs were lost in a hard drive failure so the entire layout had to be redone by hand.) [It] was an insanely tedious process but so very worth it; the lyrics most definitely deserve the attention they got.” – Julian Bialowas

Scissor Sisters – Magic Hour (Polydor Records)

PHOTOGRAPHY & ARTWORK BY NEIL KRUG – neilkrug.com
DESIGN BY TREVOR TARCZYNSKI – studiodestro.com

“The main goal was to generate something surreal that would sequentially flow with the band’s previous album sleeves. I wanted the image to have an exuberant quality and at the same time look like a scene from a sci-fi film.” - Neil Krug

“[Collaboration was] pretty close, in particular with Scott Hoffman (Babydaddy) from the band. He and I spoke almost everyday about ideas and new designs. Since the project was based in 3D, the options for perspective were endless, so it took us a moment to dial in what we were after.” – Neil Krug

“The story I love to tell is about the cover. They had a different idea that they were passionate about but wasn’t going to be addressed right away, so I hired Joe Garrad to shoot these objects that Derek [Miller] and Alexis [Krauss] collected. If my memory serves me correct, they weren’t sold on their own idea of showing bloody Keds in the booklet. (Keds is an icon that represents Alexis since that’s pretty much all she wears. [with] blood to show pain and aggression which is very much within the songs themselves.) I said, ‘Let’s just shoot it; if we use it, we use it. If not, no harm done.’ After going back and looking at all the shots with Joe, I decided to put everything on a cream background to make it feel more like a considered piece of art, and the shoes JUMPED off the page. In our next meeting, I said something along the lines of, ‘Guys, I know you love your cover idea, but here’s your real cover’ (I probably didn’t come off as smooth and confident as that, but let’s just go with it) and showed them the Keds. Alexis and Will, the manager, immediately loved it. Derek liked it and said he wanted to live with it for a night and called me up the next day saying we nailed it. The decision to take the type off of the cover came a little later when it just felt like Joe’s photo was so much more powerful with no typography to share the attention.” – Steve Attardo

Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror (Mom & Pop)

DESIGN & LAYOUT BY STEVE ATTARDO – stevenattardo.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE GARRAD – joegarrad.com
ART DIRECTION BY DEREK MILLER OF SLEIGH BELLS

“Sleigh Bells felt that this album had much more emotional depth in the writing, so from the start, they knew they wanted the design to reflect that. The idea was to take all of these seemingly unrelated objects and display them in an overly appreciative way to show that despite their range and obscurity, there was a sentimental connection to all of it. There’s Derek’s grandfather’s Purple Heart and also one of his favorite distortion pedals. There was a speaker head and his grandfather’s canteen (with the entrance and exit holes from a bullet).” - Steve Attardo

ADDITIONAL IMAGES AT STEVENATTARDO.COM

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“This was a 100% collaboration. Sleigh Bells came to me with a pretty clear vision and passion for how they wanted to be perceived, what they wanted to include, and the story (though confusing and non-linear) they wanted to tell. From there, I felt it was my job to take it all in and show them which ideas were working, which weren’t, and how to show it in a considered / better way — how to make it really speak. We were working with a pretty simple and clean aesthetic from the start, so it really became about art direction and details.” – Steve Attardo

[nextpage title="Collage, Sculpture & Mixed Media (14)"]

2D MIXED MEDIA

3D MIXED MEDIA

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship // Alice Cohen – Pink Keys // Battles – Dross Glop Series // Bear in Heaven – I Love You, It’s Cool // Clown & Sunset – Don’t Break My Love // The Darkness – Hot Cakes // Dog Shredder – Brass Tactics // How To Dress Well – Total Loss // Tin Can Radio – Open Ears, Open Minds // Sun Airway – Soft Fall // Turbo Fruits – Butter // White Lung – Sorry // Woods – Bend Beyond // Young Magic – Melt

 

Collaged and mixed media works, running from the 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional and sculptural works. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

 

ALL CATEGORIES:

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship (Secretly Canadian)

DESIGN BY DANIEL MURPHY OF SECRETLY CANADIAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DION LUNADON OF A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

“The photo is of one of the new World Trade Towers in New York. It is disgusting that America really loves to fight. Our album cover, I feel, shows the beauty of the design of the lines in structure of such a stark and strange scene. - Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers

 

“I took this picture while driving around Manhattan, and it sparked the idea to take photos in that area. Dion [Lunadon of A Place To Bury Strangers] shot the photo on one of our jaunts downtown, and then it was reworked by Daniel Murphy at Secretly Canadian.” – Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers

“The artwork is a combination of original photos taken by the band, along with some found photos, that have been collaged and heavily manipulated to push the colors in a more confrontational direction. We were hoping to invoke a sense of disorientation and vertigo with the design – to give the viewer the sense of moving at a great speed without being sure whether they’re going up or down. It felt like a good visual representation of the intensity of the music, without really being as visually dark as much of their previous album artwork. It’s an attempt to achieve “heaviness” with a lighter touch.” – Daniel Murphy

The photo on the insert for Pink Keys came from an old French film magazine, from the late ’60s, and is a still from the 1969 film Le Grand Meaulnes (pictured). The scene is called La Fete Etrange, and contains people dressed in colorful and bizarrely fantastical costumes. That image was an inspiration for the song “La Fete Etrange” and really piqued my curiosity, conjuring scenes of parades and processions of strangely dressed characters. – Alice Cohen

Alice Cohen – Pink Keys (Olde English Spelling Bee)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY ALICE COHEN – alicecohen.bandcamp.com – AND TODD LEDFORD – oesbee.blogspot.com

“The art which became the cover for Pink Keys was found accidentally before the creation of the music, and was the first impetus and catalyst for the entire album.” - Alice Cohen

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“I came across the illustration of the keys in an old encyclopedia from 1938. The illustration was square, as an album cover is, and was basically used “as is” for the album art… something about the color scheme, and the design just grabbed me completely, and I said, “That is my next album cover”. I showed it to Todd from Olde English Spelling Bee Records, and for the following year after finding this picture, we called the concept and the album “Pink Keys”, based on the muted pink background color of the illustration. From that, I got into the symbolic ideas of “keys” and locking/unlocking as psychological/mystical concepts, which inspired me throughout the creation of the album. The color “pink” tied into this as well… so the one original image of the two keys on the pink background unlocked an entire world of ideas and metaphors that I could play with lyrically, musically and conceptually. – Alice Cohen

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“[Todd and I] had worked together in the past on album art, and knew how each other work and what we were going for. We are both very particular about everything, including fonts, and we don’t like to use computer fonts at all…the lettering for the album was hand-done with colored pencil and stencils. We made an alphabet, scanned it, and put it together letter-by-letter. Both Todd and I like the artwork to be a sort of experimental and magical process – personal and done our “own way”, cohesive, and a very crucial part of the entire package – as important as the music, actually, and able to contain the same vibe as the music. We would pay a lot of attention to detail, and try a lot of things with lettering, lay-out, color, texture of paper etc – and all the details matter, no matter how minor they might seem. – Alice Cohen

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“As an animator, and video artist, I have performed live with my animations projected behind me. It makes for a really immersive performance, where the audience sees how my mind works visually as well as musically, and there’s usually a lot of connection between the two; even if I don’t plan it out, the audience can make connections between the two forms of expression.” – Alice Cohen

Battles – Dross Glop Singles Series (Warp Records)

A glorious extension from 2011′s full-length release, Gloss Drop, which similarly made our 2012 for its sculpturally satisfying bubblegum looks. See it on our 2011 Year-End Respect For Album Cover Art.

“I really enjoyed working on the tees which also had many variations — 3 colorways for the black body, a hypercolor version with inks that change in the sun, a floral print and a remix of the eyes from Beast Rest Forth Mouth. The initial feedback on the album art was pretty exciting as it was incredibly polarized. There were a lot of haters for sure… I was psyched that that many people took the time to discuss it at all, as it’s pretty hard to get any kind of reaction these days. I was actually hoping for Vice Magazine’s worst cover of the month slot although I’m not sure if they even do that any more.” – Sadek Bazaraa

Bear in Heaven – I Love You, It’s Cool (Dead Oceans)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY SADEK BAZARAA – sadekbazaraa.com
MOTION DESIGN ON WEBSITE BY ADAM WILLS OF BEAR IN HEAVEN
WEBSITE DESIGN BY NATE UTESCH – nthnl.com

“The conceptual framework was simply an effort to capture the album’s multi-layered and nuanced pop and psychedelic sensibilities. I really wanted to draw attention to the vibrant nature of I Love You, It’s Cool as compared to its more austere predecessor. In more abstract terms, I sort of consider Beast Rest Forth Mouth ‘of the moon’ and ILYIC to be ‘of the sun’. In the spirit of solar processes, I worked with sweaty flowers and slippery type, melting together through the steamy haze of the sun.” - Sadek Bazaraa

“I’m sure Sadek had some grand plan. We were so focused on making the music that we left the artwork in his hands. Hometapes is also a big force in all of our artwork. They’re willing to push things to a new and fantastic levels.” – John Philpot of Bear In Heaven

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“We’ve always worked closely on the album designs. The previous albums had a bit more interaction in that regard as I was still a performing member of the band. Removed from the rigors of practice, songwriting and touring, I was able to put more time and focus into the art direction of ILYIC. I put some mood boards together to get initial impressions from the gang and hit the ground running from there… There was a barrage of both analog and digital processes explored — scanner manipulations, Photoshop filters, photography, etc. I’m usually very process-oriented and generally most excited about experimenting with new juxtapositions and techniques to see what emerges. Perhaps ‘process’ would be considered the primary technique in and of itself.” – Sadek Bazaraa

“Sadek was in the band for years, so we’re comfortable communicating about creating something. He would listen to demos and generate ideas… I think we met up three times; in each meeting, he would take us on a visual journey. By the end of it, we would have made a few choices and had a few beers.” – John Philpot of Bear In Heaven

THE EXTRAS
“Sadek named the record by accident. He was in our practice space listening to demos and left me a note. It said, “Dear Jon, I love you, it’s cool.” – Jon Philpot of Bear In Heaven

Clown & Sunset – Don’t Break My Love (Clown & Sunset)

ARTWORK & PACKAGING DESIGNED BY NIKITA QUASIM

“The prism is an aluminum cube, small enough to fit in your palm. It was designed by Jaar as a new medium for releasing music. This first release — CSA001 — features twelve (mostly) unreleased songs from Jaar and other Clown & Sunset collaborators.

The prism is a piece of art in and of itself; its contents beg to be shared. Twin headphone outlets encourage connections to the object and between the two listeners. The prism tries to restore physicality to the listening experience.

The medium and the method are as important as the music itself. The prism makes you consider how the music is being heard, the way the object feels in your hands, and its potential to foster intimacy between listeners.

When the prism is unplugged, a beam of light passes through the empty center, revealing a void. Someone is missing.” – Clown & Sunset

The Darkness – Hot Cakes (Canary Dwarf Records)

CONCEPT BY THOM LESSNER
PAINTING BY DIEGO GRAVINESE – diegogravinese.com
LAYOUT & DESIGN BY TOURIST – wearetourist.com

“Tourist put forward style boards for various props including gold bikinis, sunglasses, etc., the look of the models from magazine reference as well as how we wanted the syrup to drip off the pancakes… We sent all the style books to the band to approve before the shoot commenced. The band’s brief was to create ‘an unapologetically mainstream 70′s porn, kitsch Linda Lovelace vs Raquel Welch vibe’ with big, bold retro looking typography.

Trying to find a 3D-modeling company in London to build three giant 8-foot pancakes within the budget was impossible, so we had everything created in Argentina for the shoot… Diego was let loose to transform it into a retro looking piece of art after a considerable amount of retouching on the final photo to get the syrup looking just right. The album is out on CD Deluxe and gatefold LP mushroom vinyl on August 20.” – Rob Chenery of TOURIST, via DiegoGuevera.com

MORE PROCESS PHOTOS CAN BE SEEN AT DiegoGuevera.com

Dog Shredder – Brass Tactics (Good To Die Records)

ARTWORK & DESIGN BY JOHN OVERLY

Artist could not be reached for comment.

How To Dress Well – Total Loss (Acephale)

DESIGN BY JOSH CLANCY, TRAVIS STEARNS, AND PATRICK NORTH
ARTWORK BY MILE ERROR OF 3D

“After a lot of image sharing the reference we circled around was to the antique tradition of the death mask because it is a sculptural object, a memorial object, inextricably akin to it’s master. The masks are a powerful, indexical sign that suggests the suspension of time while also foreshadowing new growth and life. We felt this concept related so much to the way in which Tom was sculpting a sonic space for mourning and loving remembrance. So the mask is cast not to crystallize his corporeal being, but this particular moment of emotional stillness.” - Joshua Clancy

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Since we were working remotely from each other, it was too difficult to sculpt a real mask from Tom’s face and get it photographed just right. So instead, we opted to hire a 3D artist, Mile Error. We chose to render Tom in 3D because it allows for the control and construction of another, hyperreal world that is achievable with a relatively low production cost.” – Joshua Clancy

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“I incorporate visuals created by my long time friend, Nicky Reed. The visual element is paramount for the live show as it really brings home the affect of each song. The visual aspect of the show helps create an effective ambiance in which my songs can really take root and make a deep experience, for me and for the audience, truly possible.” – Tom Krell of How To Dress Well

Sun Airway – Soft Fall (Dead Oceans)

This album cover artwork was featured in an in-depth interview with Japanese art collective NAM and Jon Barthmus of Sun Airway, in the article Soft Fall Album Cover: The Music of Sun Airway & The Art of Japan’s NAM.

“At the early stage Jon gave us the keyword for the album, ‘vegetation’. The ‘vegetation’ motif holds together the whole fantastique ambience that makes up this project’s visuals. We assembled the visuals of a world with that word as the foundation… Our aim was to perfectly match the world of Sun Airway’s music and take that world of sound and enlarge its image visually. I believe that the music and the cover visuals that go with the creation of an album have an extremely intimate relationship. Music and visuals have the power to overcome country and language to convey a message. Creating something so intimate between the US and Japan was an incredible experience, and most of all it was fun! ” - Takayuki Nakazawa of NAM

Tin Can Radio – Open Ears, Open Minds (Self-Released)

ARTWORK & DESIGN BY SAM CHIRNSIDE – samchirnside.com

Artist could not be reached for comment.

“Closer to the album release VICE Noisey gave away the original clay sculpture to promote the record. I thought it would be cool for a fan to have it. It’s the kind of thing I’d value if I was a fan of a band.” – Matt Hearn of Turbo Fruits

Turbo Fruits – Butter (Serpents And Snakes)

SCULPTURE BY MATT HEARN OF TURBO FRUITS W/ HELP FROM RUBY ROGERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC ENGLAND

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“We wanted an album name & album art that was striking but not loaded. We’re not a controversial or political band. We’re a rock n’ roll band with a lot of ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s rock influence, so we wanted an image that had the vibe of that era. Jonas and I worked together on the record art. Jonas came up with the name, Butter, and the idea of having a stick of butter with lettering on it. I saw what I wanted and started creating mockups out of yellow paper at the printing company I used to work at. I then worked with Ruby Rogers of the Black Belles to figure out how to carve the lettering out of clay so the negative space would have a lot of depth. I wanted it to look epic, like a miniature Stonehenge or something… I used clay to continue the medium used for the Echo Kid record cover and the hand-made feel of all the Turbo Fruits LPs. We wanted it to be something tangible & real but kind of surreal at the same time.” – Matt Hearn of Turbo Fruits

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“Once the clay sculpture (http://turbofruits.com/08/2012/win-pot-butter-vinyl-1100-the-butter-sculpture-from-the-album-art/) was ready we met up with photographer Eric England (http://www.ericengland.net/) who I had photograph the sculpture from the same vantage point as a real stick of butter on a dish from Jonas’ parents’ house. After that, it was just a little Photoshop magic to get the sculpture to mesh with the background image.” – Matt Hearn of Turbo Fruits

White Lung – Sorry (Deranged Records)

DESIGN BY RYAN DYCK
COVER ARTWORK BY JUSTIN GRADIN – justingradin.com

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Woods – Bend Beyond (Woodsist)

Artists unknown.

Young Magic – Melt (Carpark Records)

ARTWORK & CREATIVE DIRECTION BY LEIF PODHAJSKY – leifpodhajsky.com

“I wanted to bend or Melt what we see as reality.” - Leif Podhajsky

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“I think it was a product of resonance. Resonance in ideas and long talks. Leif had sent us this image before the album was completed, and it immediately spoke to us. Sometimes an image just jumps off the page and commands you to spend more time with it, to participate and engage with it. It symbolised the same palette of feelings we were exploring on this record; it too was sending out little tentacles into the world, seeing who it would touch. It amplified a lot of ideas Leif and I were discussing at the time. The beauty, colour and blur beyond the mundane. Breaking open the head. The intrinsic holographic equilibrium.

I’d eventually see the cover figure as existing in one level of these subtler levels of reality — don’t ask me which one — perfectly equanimous, although the image seemed to change shape every day I looked at it. It was as if someone had managed to sneak a photograph of the holographic world in its raw state, when all the concrete and tangible levels of reality had been surpassed and dissolved, leaving just the essence. A flick of the thumb, a peacock feather, a figure. It was all the same thing. The image was dense, complicated and very simple at once, like the music on Melt. – Isaac Immanuel of Young Magic

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“I know [Young Magic's] music and ideas well. I had free reign; it was a pretty organic process and one of the first pieces I did. It actually started out as an artwork for a side project, but once I created it, I knew there was something special about it. I got that feeling.” – Leif Podhajsky

“It was Leif’s concept, entirely and completely. Both 7″ covers before Melt had been monochromatic, so we were definitely searching for color. He sent us a near finished version, and all we did was drag out the process, umming and ahhing on details, getting the colors right for weeks, until the deadline approached and we had to get real. Haa.” – Isaac Immanuel of Young Magic

[nextpage title="Painting & Illustration (17)"]

CALM

CHAOTIC

Altar Eagle – Nightrunners // Decimus – 11 // Dustin Wong – Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadows Lead // Father John Misty – Fear Fun // Fergus & Geronimo – Funky Was The State of Affairs // Generationals – Lucky Numbers // Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams // Machinedrum – SXLND // Matt Carlson – All Moments // Matthew Dear – Beams // Swans – The Seer // Laurel Halo – Quarantine // Moon Duo – Circles // Of Montreal – Daughter of Cloud // Samantha Glass – Mysteries From The Palomino Skyliner // Spires That In The Sunset Rise – Ancient Patience Wills It Again Part II // Three Legged Race – Persuasive Barrier // Tilly & The Wall – Heavy Mood // Torche – Harmonicraft // Ty Segall Band – Slaughterhouse

 

Illustrative and painted works that descend more and more into chaos. Please be patient when waiting for materials to load!

 

ALL CATEGORIES:

Altar Eagle – Nightrunners (Digitalis)

PAINTING BY RADEK DRUTIS – www.radekdrutis.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
It might have been inspired by some things I was interested in at the time, like some vintage Killed By Death 45′s, The Nubs’ “I Don’t Need You”, for example, this old UK comp called Back Stage Pass with Manufactured Romance on it, and a lot of ’60s-’80s Polish cinema. – Radek Drutis

With Nightrunners, we had actually already decided on a totally different cover, and I was working with Radek on art for something else. When Radek sent through his ideas for that and I saw the cover we settled on for Nightrunners, I immediately knew it was perfect. The 10 songs on the album are all different stories about different characters (in their own, vague way), and I felt like this artwork reflected that incredibly well. Add in that Radek’s cover work has been some of my favorite through the years (his cover for Madlib’s Miles Away album is honestly my favorite album cover of the last 10 years), it was a no brainer. – Brad Rose, of Altar Eagle

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“Another band I used to play in, Ajilvsga, always had projections during our live performances that were an important component of those shows. I’m also very interested in doing videos for my music and trying to translate the ideas behind the work into something visual (or, even more interestingly, turning it over to someone else without any input and seeing how they interpret it.)” – Brad Rose, of Altar Eagle

Decimus – 11 (Digitalis)

ARTWORK BY DYLAN MCCONNELL OF TINY LITTLE HAMMERS – tinylittlehammers.com

“When it came time for Brad [Rose, from Digitalis] and I to discuss the art for this LP, I didn’t have any real fleshed out ideas. Part of why I was very excited to work with Digitalis was because of the labels consistently amazing visual aesthetic, so I was very open to Brad’s suggestion. The first thing he sent me was the art we used. I immediately loved it and saw how it related meaningfully to the music. They “belonged” together. I had nothing to do what its inception and its creation was unrelated to the music on the record. In general, I believe that one of the more powerful aspects of the psychedelic experience is the serendipitously meaningful relationship of unrelated stimuli.” – Pat Murano of Decimus

“Honestly I don’t recall – I do remember sending out 4-5 ideas, and this is the one he picked. I had a couple Decimus albums and just kinda riffed by extrapolating… I never actually talked to him but worked through Digitalis.” – Dylan McConnell

“Film is something I studied for a couple of years in college; it’s a very important medium for me. “Diagonally Talking Echo” and “Pink Diamond” were both [music videos] I made this year. I would love to do a narrative for the next one! I’ve played a couple of shows this year with a live video feed, showing my feet and pedals, just so it would make things more transparent to what I’m actually doing on stage. Some people see me up there and just wonder what I’m doing near my feet; some people even think I’m not even playing the guitar.” – Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong – Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadows Lead (Thrill Jockey Records)

ARTWORK BY DUSTIN WONG

“The drawing for the album was actually based on a photograph of me floating in a reservoir in Maryland called Pretty Boy. I liked the image because it almost felt like the figure itself floated up from the bottom of the reservoir. After being with it for a while, I’ve been interpreting it as a dream floating up to the surface of our subconscious. The figure looks like he’s sleeping, so we are also kind of seeing this dream within a dream idea too. I see it as a representation of a dream emerging, and dreaming itself. [I] tried using the photo for the actual cover, but it felt a bit too raw, since I was in the nude.” – Dustin Wong

Father John Misty – Fear Fun (Sub Pop Records)

ILLUSTRATION BY DIMITRI DRJUNCHIN – dimitri-drjuchin.com
DESIGN BY JEFF KLEINSMITH
ADDITIONAL DESIGN BY SASHA BARR – thisisthenewyear.com

“The idea that was originally given to me by Josh [Tillman of Father John Misty] was ‘Sunset Strip Sleeze’, which I think is there on some level. But eventually it became more of an abstract idea rather then a direct depiction. My approach was to try to stay within my own style of working, since that’s what made Josh ask me to do the cover, and try to depict aspects of his songs.

“Most of the characters on the cover are a representation of a lyric on the album. You can make a game of it when listening. A drinking game even… if you’re inclined.” – Dimitri Drjuchin

Fergus & Geronimo – Funky Was The State of Affairs (Hardly Art)

ARTWORK BY ANDREW SAVAGE OF FERGUS & GERONIMO

Choice wise words about the album artwork and creative process:
“FUNKY” and “I mean, I always try to look my best.” – Andrew Savage of Fergus & Geronimo

Generationals – Lucky Numbers (Park The Van)

ARTWORK BY SCOTT CAMPBELL – scttcmpbll.com

PROCESS & COLLABORATION
“When working with Scott, the vision really comes from him… I’m wanting him to give us his take on what it should be. Sometimes our starting point might be something that he has made in the past, and we’ll say, ‘Hey, we liked this thing you did. Can you give us another take on that idea?’ Of course at some point there is a back and forth of ideas and we sort of nudge things here or there. But its usually like more minor changes for practical reasons. He is always the source for the larger picture idea.” – Ted Joyner of The Generationals

“The band liked a piece I had done that featured an eye within a hand, so I just set out to do a fresh take on that idea.” – Scott Campbell

AUDIO-VISUAL COMPONENTS
“For this past tour, we took the eye part of Scott’s design and blew it up really big and backlit it. We also built these triangular light boxes that we had onstage that were inspired by the geometry of Scott’s design. Its cool to me to sometimes have a sort of thematic connection between our album art and the visual of our live set up when we are out touring and playing those songs.” – Ted Joyner of The Generationals

Laurel Halo – Quarantine (Hyperdub)

DESIGN BY OPTIGRAM – optigram.net
ARTWORK BY MAKOTO AIDA – mizuma-art.co.jp

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams (IAMSOUND)

DESIGN BY BEN SCHNEIDER OF LORD HURON

“The visuals for Lonesome Dreams were created concurrently with the music, and the processes informed each other. Sometimes I’d find something out about a song by working on an image and vice-versa. This image seemed to best represent the themes as well as the sounds of the record. The hope is that it sets the scene and gives the listener a sense of space and place before they enter the world of the record.” - Ben Schneider, lead singer of Lord Huron

“I like to ask [musicians] not just their ideas about how they visualise the music, but also echoes of how they worked to produce the music. For instance, with Travis [Stewart] (Machinedrum)’s album sleeve for Room(s), I made sure the sleeve was started and finished within the time it took him to produce a song — just two hours. It made the work feel as considered and vital and as the music.” – Dominic Sum Flannigan

Machinedrum – SXLND (LuckyMe)

DESIGN BY DOMINIC SUM FLANNIGAN OF LUCKYME – thisisluckyme.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“Working from the title SXLND (pronounced ‘SEXLAND’), I had a pretty funny starting point to work from — on top of the notion that we wanted to present these quite varied house-inspired songs [as though they] existed in their own world together. I drew upon the print and illustration of the Japanese geisha, presented as a decorative paper doll to evoke a time when sex and gender politics butted up against high society and ceremony. It was [a] rich visual world of beautiful delicate illustration, but it was suitably heavy and dark. We added a paper doll mannequin to a card insert, and if people chose, they could destroy the outer sleeve to dress the doll.” – Dominic Sum Flannigan

Matt Carlson – All Moments (NNA Tapes)

ARTWORK BY JASON TRAEGER – jasontraeger.com
LAYOUT & DESIGN BY MATT MAYER

“I’ve known Jason Traeger for several years now as a friend and collaborator in Oregon Painting Society, and I’ve long admired his playfully surreal, mystical oil paintings. When sequencing the tracks for All Moments, it became apparent [to me] that the mood and feel of these pieces was very different from my last LP, Particle Language, which had a kind of grey-void machine language vibe. These tracks were colorful dream worlds, playful and fun. Jason’s paintings were the first and only idea I had for the artwork. The paintings already existed, so no direction was given to him by me, but he has his own elaborate artistic philosophy and vision, which you can ask him about. Visuals are usually the last thing I think of with my work and I often have a hard time with it; I’ve usually just relied on artist friends of mine to take care of it for me.” – Matt Carlson

“There are little hints and clues that inform the design. Like if you look at the LP label on the side a song is on, the song title and the color palettes line up on the back cover of the LP. There are etched messages on each side of the vinyl.” – Michael Cina

Matthew Dear – Beams (Ghostly International)

ART DIRECTION BY MICHAEL CINA AND MATTHEW DEAR
ARTWORK & DESIGN BY MICHAEL GINA – cinaart.com

THEMATIC ELEMENTS
“The album artwork started with a 15-minute call between Matthew Dear and myself, and we just talked. In that short time, we came up with an idea that I was going to paint him live in NYC in front of a camera with things happening around us. That “Beams Story” video came from that conversation, and ultimately, the cover… I really thought about the album like form and colors after hearing the LP. I had a color palette picked out, and that is what ultimately lead the project for me. We knew there was four singles as well, so that was always present on how the project “unfolded” through each single. Matthew Dear was an important part of the process. I don’t know how to describe it, but we just had this understanding of what it was we were going for. He would offer comments here and there but he gave me space to do my thing. I think that is really the best way to direct a project, but both parties have to be on the same page.” – Michael Cina

Moon Duo – Circles (Souterrain Transmissions / Sacred Bones)

ARTWORK BY WILLIAM SWEENEY – alakazamlabel.com

“Ripley & Sanae [of Moon Duo] told me that the album was inspired by a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay, which discusses cosmic themes, centered around the notion of circles. This was a starting point for the artwork.” - William Sweeney

“There were no specific rules – their brief was very open and I got the sense that they wanted something vibrant and psychedelic, I showed them some old alchemical engravings which I wanted to base the composition on, and they seemed to like them. I also wanted to incorporate some Georges Méliès inspired moon people and give it a sort of lunar rave feel – I think Moon Duo’s music is very danceable and wanted to reflect that a bit. So it was a real mixture of things and a nice collaboration.” – William Sweeney

THE EXTRAS
“I had actually created an illustration for Moon Duo before, without them knowing it was me who did it, for a compilation LP called Menagerie. It was complete coincidence that they contacted me to do the art for Circles; I like to think that mysterious cosmic forces brought us together again.” – William Sweeney

Of Montreal – Daughter Of Cloud (Polyvinyl Records)

ARTWORK BY DAVID BARNES

“I asked David Barnes to imagine that the album was a living creature, and then to draw the face of the only creature capable of truly loving that entity, and that’s the cover image.” - Kevin Barnes of of Montreal

Laurel Halo – Quarantine (Hyperdub)

DESIGN BY OPTIGRAM – optigram.net
ARTWORK BY MAKOTO AIDA – mizuma-art.co.jp

Artists could not be reached for comment.

Samantha Glass – Mysteries From The Palomino Skyliner (Not Not Fun)

ARTWORK BY RYO KURAMOTO – crooked-tapes.com

“Beau [Devereaux of Samantha Glass] had already had a great vision of this album. I hope I helped to visualize a part of his beauty.

All the stuff I drop [has] total DIY processes. Screen-printing, papercuts, and folding…. That’s why each artwork has different paper and ink. It’s kind of hard work for one guy [in a] small space, especially [since] Samantha Glass covers are massive. I made more than 500 copies. Each has 2 or 3 colors… maybe I’m trying to getting over DIY’s limitations.

Oh, and [I] always need tons of weed [during the] whole the process.” – Ryo Kuramoto

PART 1

Spires That In The Sunset Rise – Ancient Patience Wills It Again Part II (Hairy Spider Legs)

PAINTINGS BY TURNER WILLIAMS – turnerwilliamsjr.com

“When Spires asked me about doing the cover, things were very relaxed and there was a lot of time. No deadline, label or direction. The project floated in the ether for over a year. I feel like that sense of space and time is in the music and the art. Tapping into something that moves or evolves so slowly that it seems timelessness or eternal or even static. The power of slow natural processes. Old growth.” - Turner Williams

 

“With Part 1, I had themes flying out my ass; one was this apocalyptic vision of a war-torn beachfront with this old lady rocking in a rocker as fireworks exploded overhead. So I had this very narrative idea for the art, which is why I contacted Turner, whose prints and paintings I loved and thought was capable of creating the details of these nuanced visions.” – Kathleen Baird

COLLABORATION
“Spires originally sent me 80 minutes of music. It was a really dense listening experience, and I started breaking the disc up into shorter albums… I got to know the tunes backwards and forwards after that year. Later, when they said they were going to release the music as two separate volumes, I wasn’t surprised. However, when they sent me the tracklistings, I was amazed to find their choices were really similar to mine! Maybe I tapped into some secret logic within those tunes from hanging out in Spires’ territory too long…” – Turner Williams

“It always starts with sending the artist the music. With Part 1, I started vomiting off all of these visions for Turner, giving him very detailed things to go off on…. we had many exchanges, a few missteps, and eventually we fell upon the bizarreness of Part 1. With Part 2, I decided that I didn’t want to give Turner any guidelines or directions; I wanted to give him complete artistic license without the paranoia of trying to please me — and that worked like a gem. I completely trust him.” – Kathleen Baird

Swans – The Seer (Young God Records)

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN BY MICHAEL GIRA OF SWANS
PAINTING & PHOTOGRAPHY BY SIMON HENWOOD – simonhenwood.com

“My dear best friend Simon Henwood, the artist… had this little tempera painting of a wolf-like thing, and I asked him to develop it. He put my teeth in without telling me. Then I asked him: “Why don’t you put this sort of exploding… posterior.” [laughs] It just seemed to fit. I don’t know how it ties in content-wise. It can’t answer the questions; it shouldn’t answer the questions. It should create more questions. I think it does.” - Michael Gira, in Pitchfork Interview

(Editor’s note: There is an additional image that looks like an exploding fuzzy posterior.)

Three Legged Race – Persuasive Barrier (Editions Mego)

ARTWORK BY ROBERT BEATTY – remainsstreet.com

“The album is a very personal album that I worked on for several years, so I have spent much time focusing on what the cover should be over the course of the 5 years I worked on the music for this record. I’d rather not go into it too much, but the heart of it is about communication breakdown in relationships and the isolation that comes from that… It’s actually hard doing artwork for my own releases, because I want to set it apart from the other work I do and also have so many things I want to represent in one image.” - Robert Beatty

 

Tilly And The Wall – Heavy Mood (Team Love)

Artist unknown.

Torche – Harmonicraft (Volcom Entertainment)

ARTWORK BY JON SANTOS – eyebleedink.blogspot.de

“I wanted a fantasy landscape similar to Roger Dean covers, but with a fun twist. The rest was all Santos. He’s a genius… Without hearing the album, Santos still nailed what we were trying to achieve with the art.” - Steve Brooks of Torche

 

“A few of the cities on the backs of the Harmon creatures are Atlanta, Miami, Seattle which represent our homes (including Santos who lives in Seattle). The ice cream box packaging has a Rick Smith cone on the front. You can find little things that represent who we are on the sleeve.” – Steve Brooks of Torche

Ty Segall Band – Slaughterhouse (In The Red)

ARTWORK BY TATIANA KARTOMTEN – tatianakartomten.com

Artist was not contacted in time for commenting.

Related posts:

1. 90 Notable Album Covers From 2010 : Part IV
2. 2011 Year-End Respect For Album Cover Art: Illustration, Painting & Drawing
3. Albums Of The Year 2011 : REDEFINE Staff Picks

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

2012 Album Covers of the Year

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