| Artist | 2-3: Hauschka; 4-8: Simon Scott; 9-11: The Declining Winter; 12: His Clancyness |
| Title | 2-3: Small Pieces; 4-8: Nivalis; 9-11: Scenes From The Back Bedroom Window; 12: Hissometer EP |
| Label | Secret Furry Hole |
| Year | 2009-10 |
| Design | Tomm |
| Music | Hymnal/suspended/instrumelodic/vocalescent |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | Each design here except His Clancyness is a 3″ CD. That’s one of the delights of the work, its small scale. Another is the sense of something made by hand, with care, the sense of marks unique to each design. That is certainly the case with the cover of Hauschka’s Small Pieces: four panels of the small card sleeve bear the print of a roughly square block print, two red and two grey/black. On the red squares, there’s a hair line that shows the block was turned 90 degrees between each print. The artist’s name also looks hand printed, the treatment and roughness of the ink a pleasure to the eye.
The front cover of Simon Scott’s Nivalis is almost but not quite abstract. Suspicions are confirmed when the tiny form of the booklet is unfolded to reveal the entire image. Within the miniature form is hidden the wooded slopes of massive, snowy mountains, their tops disappearing into cloud. On the reverse is large sans-serif type. The text is easily misread as “… and mountains… in Cambridge, England… by Tomm.” Tomm can work wonders if he’s able to reshape that county’s generally pancake-flat terrain. At the bottom of the sheet, below the slit that facilitates the folding is the pouch for the little, unmarked CD. Again on The Declining Winter, the solid becomes spectral. A roof, complete with chimney and television aerial, blurs and appears about to evaporate into the air. This time on the reverse, the much smaller, widely spaced type may follow suit. The aesthetic reflects and enhances the music’s subtle delicacy. As well as the understated design approach, the colour palette for all four of these releases serves to bind them loosely together: reds, greys, blacks and a certain off-white predominate. Tomm writes:
SFH releases are produced in small numbers. They sell out. Buy them direct from Secret Furry Hole’s website. |
| Listen | Hauschka – Sehnsucht
Simon Scott – Nivalis (edit) The Declining Winter – Killer His Clancyness – Sight Prayer |
