| Artist | Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura and Otomo Yoshihide |
| Title | Good Morning Good Night |
| Label | Erstwhile Records |
| Year | 2004 |
| Design | Friederike Paetzold |
| Music | Improvised |
| Notes | Colourful, bold, graphic – not exactly a predictable design for such so-called lowercase music. |
| Listen |
- Good Morning - Good Night 1 - Good Night 2 |
| Artist | Stereolab |
| Title | Dots and Loops |
| Label | Duophonic |
| Year | 1997 |
| Design | Julian House |
| Music | Retro-futurist/French pop/Bernard Parmegiani-inspired |
| Desktop | Download image |
| Notes | Stereolab’s music tends to divide people into ardent fans and those who just don’t get the point and don’t see why they should. Hard Format falls firmly into the former. Then, within the fan camp, there are those who favour the early work. Dots and Loops and Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (another candidate for best album title of all time) are this website’s favourites, dating from a little over the mid-point of the band’s career. Sadly, Stereolab declared itself on indefinite hiatus as of last year.
The subject of this post is an absolute delight to the eye and ear. Who could help but smile at Julian House’s playful, brilliant diagrammatic reductions, part Op Art, part wiring diagram. The matching, coloured vinyl is a delight to slide out from the sleeve, place upon the turntable and watch spin as Stereolab’s warm, analogue sounds unwind out of the record’s grooves. Do also take a look at the collection of the group’s other releases just published here to coincide with this post. |
| Listen | Stereolab – Brakhage |
| Also | - Stereolab cover design collection - The Advisory Circle – Mind how you go (Revised edition) - Ghost Box |
| Artist | Lawrence English |
| Title | Site-Listening: Brisbane |
| Label | Room40 |
| Year | 2010 |
| Design | Ralph Steinbruchel |
| Music | “Site-listening” |
| Notes | This is a lovely field guide which consists of a book of essays and a 3″ CD. The cover can be detached and unfolded to reveal a schematic map to which is affixed the disc. The whole thing is described as introducing “… the idea of Site-Listening – a focused exploration into the ideas of site, space, sound and listening.” The book is handily sized so that it will fit easily into a pocket. It’s an unusually old school approach in these days of GPS-enabled, MP3-playing phones and all the more charming for it – though there is a challenge in finding a way to convert the 3″ CD to MP3 for those of us with slot-loading computers.
The Room40 website has this to say:
Now if only I had the opportunity to test this guide out in its intended environment… |
| Listen | Site-Listening: Brisbane (edit) |
