Fovea Hex – Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent
| Artist | Fovea Hex |
| Title | Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent |
| Label | Die Stadt |
| Year | 2007 |
| Designer | Jochen Schwarz |
| Music | Ambient/folk/songform |
| Notes | Another beautiful release from Die Stadt. |
Raster Noton shop/exhibition
Heh, how frustrating can you get? Seen on Disquiet:
A record shop that doesn’t sell records. Instead, it’s an art installation. From the press release:
For The Shop, the archives of the Chemnitz-based Raster Noton label will be presented at e-flux in the form of a record shop, albeit one without a commercial component. Comprised of publications (featuring Raster Noton’s distinct approach to graphic design), music CD’s (to be displayed as physical objects), and sound (for listening on mp3 players), the Raster Noton archive will offer a panoramic view of the label’s output of nearly 100 releases, or 90 hours of audio material. Bender and Nicolai’s installation White Line Light will provide lighting for The Shop via a handmade, neon gas-filled tube that reacts to Raster Noton compositions.
sunn o))) in Creative Review
Damn. Creative Review have just covered Stephen O’Malley’s visual work for sunn o))) – I’ve been meaning to contact him for ages to appear here on Hard Format. Oh well! Worth reading – it’s a good article.
Autechre and The Hafler Trio – aeo3 and 3hae
| Artist | Autechre and The Hafler Trio |
| Title | æo³ and ³hæ |
| Label | Die Stadt |
| Year | 2005 |
| Designer | A.M. McKenzie |
| Music | Unsettling |
| Notes | This is the second and, to date, final collaboration between Autechre and The Hafler Trio. The packaging is delicate and utilises a variety of different papers to achieve a strongly tactile experience. There’s an interesting tension in the relationship between the refined presentation and the unpredictable, unsettling music. |
YouTube – PIXIES – MINOTAUR – Digital Press Release #2
Imminent release designed by the great Vaughan Oliver. How big is this thing going to be?!
Yui Onodera, Tamaru (Trumn)
| Artist | 1-4: Tamaru, 5-7: Yui Onodera |
| Title | 1-4: Figure, 5-7: Entropy |
| Label | Trumn |
| Year | 2009 |
| Designer | Tri-fold design by Hideho Takemasa. 1-3: art direction by Kitchen., artwork by April Lee, 4-7: art direction by Kitchen., photography by Erica Lai |
| Music | Minimal |
| Notes | Trumn is a new Japanese label run by Hideho Takemasa. These first two releases feature a delightfully clear design aesthetic.
Hideho writes About the artists Yui Onodera (b. 1982) was born and grown up in Iwate but lives and works in Tokyo. Entropy is a reissue of his debut originally released on his own Critical Path label in 2005. In the year 2007 Onodera released three full length albums, a 7 inch vinyl and a 3 inch CDR on all different labels outside Japan. He composed solo works until two years ago when he started working on long distance collaborations respectively with Celer in the US, The Beautiful Schizophonic in Portugal, and Exit in Grey in Russia. An English article about Yui Onodera and an interview by Tobias Fischer were published on the Tokafi webzine. |
Banned Manics sleeve proves paint still has power to shock (The Guardian)
The impact the Manic Street Preachers album cover has made raises the interesting possibility that hand-made, painterly images now have more power to shock than conceptual artworks…
via The banned Manics sleeve proves that paint still has the power to shock | Music | guardian.co.uk.
Fennesz – Black Sea
| Artist | Fennesz |
| Title | Black Sea |
| Label | Touch |
| Year | 2008 |
| Designer | Design and photography by Jon Wozencroft |
| Music | Gorgeous/melancholic/brooding |
| Notes | I visited the wonderful Rough Trade record shop on Brick Lane today. Browsing the racks I saw this record on a small Touch display. It’s an absolutely lovely thing. If you think the images look rather dark that’s how the sleeve actually appears. Using Photoshop and Lightroom I was very careful to get the colours and tones right (well, at least as they appear on my MacBook Pro screen)*. The photographs match the music perfectly and significantly enrich the experience. There are two fewer tracks than the CD version, but that’s okay. Interestingly, they are named in grey on the white section of the the inner sleeve – you can just see the titles in the last image, above. My only small wish would be that Black Sea had been released on heavyweight vinyl, less for any supposed audiophile reasons than that the sense of weight would have accorded with the visual and sonic experience.* Even though you know that this sleeve is 12″ x 12″, these pictures still lack a sense of scale, something I have to work on. |
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Dazzle Ships
| Artist | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark |
| Title | Dazzle Ships |
| Label | Telegraph (Virgin) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Designer | M. Garrett, K. Kennedy, P. Pennington, P. Saville, B. Wickens for Peter Saville Associates |
| Music | Electronic popular music |
| Notes | The final OMD sleeve we’re featuring and the last great – arguably greatest – album by the Liverpool duo. After this they pulled away from experimentation to head off into pretty much undiluted pop territory, leaving behind the shortwave transmissions, fog horns, sirens and static forever.Saville’s choice of dazzle camouflage is inspired and inspiring. The choice of vivid pink for highlights and track titles echoes the use of contrast on the group’s debut, as do the die-cut holes, this time referencing portholes on the outer sleeve. The one perplexing element is the slightly unresolved view of the map on the inner gatefold through these portholes. Otherwise, the yellow/pink inner sleeve that crosses the graphic map as it’s removed or inserted into the cover is a pleasure that mirrors the experience of the eponymous debut and Architecture & Morality. Surely this sense of physical interaction provided inspiration for Olaf Bender/Raster Noton.
These small images can only do meagre justice to the monumental impression that the physical originals impart. We’d highly recommend you grab yourself a copy on eBay or via your local secondhard record emporium. Here’s a certain Thames-moored battleship decked in dazzle camouflage which even now helps it to blend into its background…
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Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Architecture & Morality
| Artist | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark |
| Title | Architecture & Morality |
| Label | Dindisc |
| Year | 1981 |
| Designer | Peter Saville and Brett Wickens |
| Music | Electronic popular music |
| Notes | Here’s the second of the three classic OMD sleeves. The missing one is the group’s second release, Organisation, which though elegant, lacks the interest of the other designs. As with the other two, the die-cut sleeve encourages interaction by providing two variations depending on which way the inner sleeve is inserted. The sheer poise in the marriage of type, image and red bar is delightful. The typography is a central device here rather than something to be hidden away as on the group’s debut. The red bar that acts as visual RSJ looks very familiar…
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