HARDHOUND

Ghostwriter – The Continuing Adventures Of The Strange Sound Association

Author: Colin | Published: 19/6/10
Previous New edition of one from Antonymes Next Rammstein box – comments

Artist Ghostwriter
Title The Continuing Adventures Of The Strange Sound Association
Label Second Language
Year 2010
Designer Glen Johnson, Angele David-Guillou and Mark Brend
Music Archival collage
Desktop Download image
Notes This is genuinely delightful – so much loving detail and sense of play. It feels wrong to tear the old newspaper to access the contents, but discovering that the reader’s ticket was actually addressed to me made it both wonderfully personal and just a little eery. I love the disembodied hand reaching out, arched like that. The track titles are as resonant as the music itself and the supporting website provides much detail about its recording.

And for the first time here on Hard Format, courtesy of the wonder of Ghostwriter and Second Language, is a making-of video:

This is what the label has to say:

Released in highly limited editions, Second Language records are designed as cherishable artist multiples as much as conventional music albums. In an age of ubiquitous, de facto ‘free’ music, Second Language releases restore the primacy of the record as precious, audio-visual object and are enjoyed by those who prize enigmatic musical packages which are aesthetically dazzling and inherently collectable.

Inspired by the ingenuously homespun but elevated production values of record labels such as Factory, Les Discs Du Crepuscule and Constellation, Second Language is a London and Copenhagen-based, subscription-funded, imprint. The label specialises in the best in innovative contemporary music which cuts across international boundaries and genres, from post-classical composition and electronic sound design to singer-songwriting, soundtrack music, plunderphonics and all stations in between.

Lovingly hand-packaged in recycled materials, and replete with all manner of beguiling inserts, these records are the product of a new kind of arts & crafts aesthetic; a 21st century cottage industry that attributes equal value to the homespun and the cutting edge.

Comments

  1. I know what you mean about opening the package – it took me hours of handling the wrapped-in-newspaper thing before I could actually bring myself to tear into it – but that was just part of the joy of it, ultimately, having to partially destroy it in order to more fully appreciate it (and I’m an archaeologist, so I do that sort of thing for a living…).

    Comment by Matt — June 30, 2010 @ 2:45 pm

  2. i ordered direct from the label,having come across the album in “record collector” magazine,its innovative but non expensive use of outer and inner packing materials is a real wonder and object of fascination.thankfully the music is also of the highest quality too.
    quite how many have been made i do not know,but i suspect a future true collectable of the highest order is now in my ownership.
    but the greater lesson here is how such an object can be made without the massive production costs(apart from human folding time costs !)incurred by the major labels,who quite often, produce disposable content of both packing and music !
    in this age of non physical d/l music it is a pleasure to find labels who appreciate more traditional values.
    also try bass communion,s “loss” – original vinyl with photo booklet and scented paperwork sleeves.again quite astonishing.

    Comment by richard aka bleedthefield — July 11, 2010 @ 3:37 pm

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