Here are some recent (and upcoming) music releases I’ve made artwork for, all these releases also come out on vinyl, the best format for enjoying album artwork! I’m writing this from Melbourne Australia, I’m back for a cousin’s wedding and a very overdue visit to see all my friends and family, I’m having such a great time, but it will be nice to return to Berlin later in April with spring properly in swing.
First, back in November 2013 the excellent Series Alphonos label came out with Cremator’s Clear Air Turbulence. The art work I made for this release is a straight up paper collage. Cremator is London one-man synth geek Matt Thompson, (Zoltan, Guapo), and this record takes you on a sci-fi tune-fest ala John Carpenter meets Kraftwerk. Series Alphonos is an off-shoot of the Bronze Rat record label, which focuses on “left-of-centre musical meanderings, soundtracks, and strange treasures from hidden corners”. Another recent Series Alphonos release is the Krzysztof Komeda soundtrack to Roman Polanski’s – Dance of the Vampires (aka The Fearless Vampire Killers), available now for the first time ever on vinyl, excellent label!
Teeth and Tongue‘s latest album “Grids” was released last week. I have worked with Teeth & Tongue (aka Jess Cornelius) on some early music videos, but I think the album cover for Grids is my favourite collaboration with her so far. The cover image is an original paper collage, which will be included in a solo exhibition I have coming up at Das Gift in Berlin in late April. ‘Grids’ is Teeth & Tongues follow up to 2011′s Tambourine, it is such an excellent record and is out on Remote Control Records.
And finally, here is the super awesome 7″ picture disc I got to make for Gemma Ray! Death Disc is a Record Store Day 2014 exclusive, and features two teenage tragedies in song form, and the track Motorbike also includes a special appearance from Alan Vega from Suicide (!!) Above is the A-side art I made and below is the B-side. It was a bit of a dream job!
…..and here is a picture (courtesy of Gemma Ray’s facebook page!) of the disc box-fresh and ready for Record Store Day!
I have a few more album art jobs I’m working on, but these are the ones I can share for now. I’ll also post details for my upcoming Berlin exhibition shortly!
Earlier this month my music video for “Transponder” by Howe Gelb’s legendary band Giant Sand premiered on Stereogum. The video came about when I finished Gemma Ray’s “The Wheel” music video, Howe Gelb’s vocals feature on that track and after seeing the video for it he got in touch about working together. The animation features my sister Molly, who lives around the corner from me and is a really great illustrator and artist. I got Joe to photograph Molly in burst mode in front of our kitchen wall while I directed her to bend, stretch and cry. While I was in the middle of putting the video together Howe was coming through Berlin on tour, so it was great to be able to include him in the video, meet him in person and see him perform, the man is a genius.
