| Artist | Mains de Givre/thisquietarmy; Quilt/Hoefizer |
| Title | Aural Diptych Series #1 and 2 |
| Label | TQA Records |
| Year | 2010 |
| Designer | Cover artwork by Elayne Safir; photographs by Meryem Yildiz; insert design by Eric Quach |
| Music | dark ambient |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | Two lovely envelope packages containing four photographs and two 3″ CDs. |
| Artist | Akira Rabelais |
| Title | Caduceus |
| Label | Samadhisound |
| Year | 2010 |
| Designer | Art direction: David Sylvian; Design: Chris Bigg; Photography: Eric Rondepierre |
| Music | A tracery of loss embodied in crackle and hiss |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | Caduceus as a musical work is breathtakingly beautiful. It’s beauty is mirrored by its cover. I particularly love the way Chris Bigg has set the track titles and Rabelais’ name over the folds of the spine. Eric Rondepierre’s imagery is breathtaking. I hadn’t encountered his work before and am grateful to have done so now – a similar experience to discovering Arnold Odermatt’s work via Tortoise’s A Lazarus Taxon.
- Akira Rabelais, Spellewauerynsherde |
An anthology of Folkways album cover art featuring the work of Ronald Clyne.
Ronald Clyne at Folkways is a 64pp newspaper devoted to designer Ronald Clyne’s record covers for the Folkways label. Clyne is one of the undiscovered talents of 20th century graphic design. He doesn’t appear in the textbooks or literature of graphic design. He is a neglected figure. Until now, that is. Clyne said: ‘A record cover should be seen at a glance. You shouldn’t have to study different sections of it. You should see the total instantly.’
New York, NY, April 28, 2010 – Artist William Schaff, who has created album cover art for bands like Okkervil River, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Songs: Ohia among others, has agreed to judge the 2nd annual Figment Album Cover Design Contest. Schaff will be judging user-generated designs submitted by players on www.figment.cc. The winner will receive Adobe’s new Photoshop Creative Suite 5 Extended courtesy of Adobe as well as merchandise designed by Mr. Schaff.
According to Figment co-founder Eric Mangol, “Album cover design has always been an important part of marketing music, but it’s also an art form in itselft. We sought out William Schaff to judge our contest because we thought his work for artists like Okkervil River really exemplified the power of good album art. His covers not only create a visual identity, but also a visual aesthetic. They are pieces of art inspired by a band’s music and that’s one of the main reasons we started Figment, to give everyone a place where they could create their own music-inspired art.”
As for Schaff, his reasons for signing on as judge are simple, “I hope to be able to put what eye I have towards the efforts of others. To share my joy and knowledge of art with those who are sharing the same. I am just a voice, not a judge. A fellow artist, being asked to give my thoughts on other artists’ efforts. I look forward to it.”
There is no fee to enter Figment’s Album Cover Contest, but you do have to register for a free account on the site. The deadline for entries is midnight ET, Friday, June 4, 2010. To find out more about the contest please visit the Figment News blog.
| Artist | Antonymes |
| Title | Beauty Becomes The Enemy Of The Future |
| Label | Secondthought |
| Year | 2010 |
| Designer | Art direction by Ian M. Hazeldine; photography: Ian M. Hazeldine, David Newlyn, Kim Smith |
| Music | Measured, at times spectral. |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | Photography has been a mainstay of music-related design for decades, from the high contrast images accompanying Reid Miles‘ flamboyant layouts to the sensitive curation of ECM Records. Beauty Becomes The Enemy Of The Future articulates another approach: the album literally becomes an album of photography. 19 photographs and a CD that lasts a whisker under 25 minutes. The music may be said to accompany the images or the images the music, there’s a balance of the two. The photographs themselves are crepescular, a tread upon the stair, light and near darkness, bullrushes against the sky. The presentation consists of fine typography and a slew of lacunae dotting Paul Morley’s text.
Antonymes’ statement: I’ve had the idea to produce something that was more than just a record for quite a while. Being a musician, graphic designer and photographer, I’ve always tried to combine my disciplines. I’d bought a lovely photo album a year or so ago and a plastic Russian camera. I had a vague plan to fill it with some of my shots, but never got round to it. When David Newlyn and I started on the cover for the initial release of Beauty Becomes The Enemy Of The Future on his label, Cathedral Transmissions, I mentioned the book idea to him. He sent me some incredible, dark photographs. I knew that these would be perfect for an expanded edition. I’d known Kim Smith for a few years and had always admired her work as a photographer. She agreed to be involved, so we set about shooting some “portraits”. Once the shots where chosen the format was developed and tweaked and a hand-made, numbered edition of 30 was released on my own label, Secondthought, early in April 2010. It sold out the week before release.
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Recently observed: a post containing images of the beautiful Prospective label on the rather fine A Sound Awareness (“Servicing The ‘Odd’ & ‘Cult’ Industry For Nearly Three Minutes”). The blog’s author has promised to photograph his collection to publish here when he has a moment. Fingers crossed.
There’s also a Prospective discography published by Ed Maurer.
