The Shee - Murmurations by Lillias Kinsman-Blake

Link: Full story at Computer Arts
Link: Lillias Kinsman-Blake

...Every copy of the album is itself unique. All 2000 of the CDs they've shipped have different patterns of starlings in flight on their covers.

"The conventional method for CD covers is lithographic printing but the flexibility of digital printing made it feasible for each cover to be different," says Kinsman-Blake...

 

Peter Gabriel - So box set by Marc Bessant

Link: Marc Bessant 
Link: Peter Gabriel 

It seems that anniversary editions and deluxe box sets are everywhere - with many recent cash-ins seemingly testing that definition of "classic". However, Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album (that contained, huge international hit, 'Sledgehammer' and Kate Bush collaboration 'Don't Give Up') has now been remastered as a timely reminder of its enduring qualities.

With its multiple vinyl, CD and download content alongside a 60 page case-bound book, the Marc Bessant-designed So 25 set additionally demonstrates Gabriel's commitment to work that is beautifully realised. And its the attention to detail - particularly the subtle embossed icons - that make this a worthy follow-up to Bessant's sumptuous packaging for the artist's Scratch My Back long-player.

Forward Strategy Group - Labour Division packaging by Adult Art Club

Link: Adult Art Club
Link: Perc Trax

Released by the Perc Trax label is the Labour Division album by Forward Strategy Group. The CD version fits neatly in a metal tin - hinting the recordings' industrial edge - with a full colour, four page booklet designed by Adult Art Club. The cover additionally has a tough aesthetic with its suspended, brutally sliced classical statue perhaps evoking the dream-like work of Giorgio de Chirico.

Wallzo's sleeve for Hot Chip's Ready for the Floor long-player also seemed to touch on the same artist's imagery although this, with it's ominous - maybe apocalyptic - landscape, is somewhat darker whilst all that concrete-like grittiness is offset nicely by Adult Art Club's more minimal detailing.

Nitemoves - Longlines by Jakub Alexander

Link: Jakub Alexander
Link: Moodgadget
Link: Nitemoves

Also known by the musician/DJ alias of Heathered Pearls while additionally the founder of Moodgadget Records and music curator of the respected IS050 blog, Jakub Alexander additionally completed artwork for Nitemoves' long-player.

An electronic opus from an individual previously spotted drumming with, two Ghostly-signed acts, Com Truise and Tycho, Longlines was first unleashed last month. Now that digital release is also joined by a limited edition cassette complete with bonus tracks. Its run of 100 copies should start shipping tomorrow.

This Dull Ache by Mark James Works

Link: Mark James
Link: This Dull Ache
Link: Cherrystones
Link: Rough Trade

A collaboration between producer/DJ Cherrystones and designer/artist Mark James, This Dull Ache is a lovingly packaged film project.

Boasting a DVD and 20 page booklet within a 10" sleeve, it's a piece that actually dates back to James' first solo show back in 2008 - although now re-worked [both re-edited and remixed] for its limited release. Additionally produced by Academy Films' Liz Kessler and edited by Ben Crook, it's now available to order from Rough Trade.

F.C. Judd - Electronics Without Tears artwork by Optigram

Link: Optigram
Link: Public Information
Link: F.C. Judd 

With CD and download versions available at a special price to mark its composer's 98th birthday, it's worth revisiting Optigram's designs for the release of F.C. Judd's Electronics Without Tears.

First released by the Public Information label in January, externally it continues a series of hard-edged yet hypnotic patterns by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda. Although, within the CD packaging, there is additionally an eight page booklet with notes on the retrospective album's 35 tracks plus a biography on the radiophonic master by, experimental documentary maker, Ian Halliwell. [The vinyl edition - limited to just 500 copies - appears to be sold out.]

DROKK packaging by Marc Bessant

Link: Marc Bessant 
Link: DROKK

The latest project from designer Marc Bessant sees him, once again, working alongside Portishead's Geoff Barrow. Titled DROKK and in collaboration with composer Ben Salisbury, this takes its musical and visual inspiration from Judge Dredd's Mega-City One. The release additionally finds itself spread across a number of formats.

Limited to an edition of 400 is a deluxe box set version consisting of a PiL-evoking metal film cannister containing an industrial-like grey vinyl pressing, circular print, CD and t-shirt. [More images of the various versions can be found at the above links.] The DROKK branding also makes use of a stencil typeface akin to that which might typify industrial signage associated with the dystopian end of the sci-fi genre.

Bessant's discussion of DROKK's development/creative process:

"Taking on a project that already has 35 years of talent associated with it is always daunting, but some things are hard to pass over, as was the case with ‘DROKK -Music inspired by Mega-City One’.

I first heard the demo’s some time ago and they were sounding the right side of edgy then and beginning to tick all the right boxes; Making music for non-existant movies has become quite fashionable of late, but what was different about this one was its creators were old-skool readers of 2000ad and, taking into account that respect for the writers and artists over the years, had a genuine motivation for making it uncompromisingly just-so. I would approach the design in much the same way, I would not (and largely could not) compete with the artists that have brought mega-city one to life for the past three-and-a-half decades, the sleeve design had to be independent of all that and stand on its own, for better or worse.

I wanted to make a sleeve/formats that wouldn’t look out of place within the Mega-Cities themselves, gritty and monochromatic. Early on we (Geoff, Ben and I) met with 2000ad/Rebellion and our work could not have been more positively received, their approval meant a lot to us and from then on it was full steam ahead.  Several formats were undertaken  – Bunker, Visor, LP and Mega-Edition – all various shapes and sizes but with an overall utilitarian and minimal aesthetic throughout. Cover logotype was painted and tracks/names chassis-stamped, all textures from the surfaces of Civil Waste Disposal vehicles, crude but apposite."

Jeroen Erosie interview at Dummy

Link: Jeroen Erosie interview

“Doing the artwork for a wide range of producers is a nice way of looking for this Gesamtkunstwerk approach. In the end, all of this is concentrated on this plastic disc with a piece of cardboard around it."

Hubro releases by Yokoland

Link: Hubro
Link: Yokoland
Link: Grappa Musikkforlag


I first spotted the releases of Norway's Hubro label when Australian designer Heath Killen included them in a blog post. You can find that here.

Anmyway, largely photographic - using found images or those taken by Aslak Gurholt Rønsen and Thomas Nordby of art directors/designers Yokoland - there's now a series of lovingly crafted physical releases for the kind of Scandinavian jazz and improvised music that has come to typify the Hubro aesthetic. Actually a sub-label of Grappa Musikkforlag - Norway's leading independent - each album is linked through the use of hand-written text plus an illustration of the Eagle Owl. (Or, as that bird is known in Norwegian, the "Hubro".)

E17 - 'Stay Another Day (Frank Eddie remix)' by Fred Deakin

Festive fun courtesy of Airside and Impotent Fury with this version of East 17's Christmas hit. Available as a 7" single in a die-cut sleeve as a limited edition of just 500 copies, get it for £8 from Airside.

Stay Another Day (Frank Eddie Remix) by impotentfury

Bleep.com 100 Tracks 2011 'gift card' by Give Up Art

Link: Bleep.com
Link: Give Up Art

London graphic design studio Give Up Art have created a stylish physical product for Bleep.com's 2011 music round-up.

Incorporating an embossed 90gsm card wallet with clear foil containing a folded A3 poster, the gift package provides a visual referent for over nine hours of modern music across a host of genres. With pre-orders being taken now, lucky recipients of either the MP3 or FLAC formats will be unwrapping music from James Blake, Fennesz, Burial, Modeselektor, Battles, Photek, Rustie, Martyn, Soul Clap, Nicolas Jaar and many, many more come December 25th.

Modeselektor - Monkeytown (Deluxe Edition)

Now available on pre-order from Bleep and Boomkat is the super-limited and super high-quality edition of Modeselektor's anticipated long-player, 'Monkeytown'.

The edition of just 500 comes as a deluxe hardcover book - 12" in size - with 28 picture pages including various unseen and exclusive full page black and white pictures from Modeselektor (including images that document their studio plus travel and portrait shots). The double album of Monkeytown additionally comes in exclusive clear vinyl while all books are signed and hand-numbered by Modeselektor. Digital versions too.

The Alexandria Quartet - Light Drawings by Grandpeople

Link: September Industry
Link: Grandpeople

"Identity and album artwork for Norwegian pop/rock ensemble The Alexandria Quartet. After touring all over Europe with their debut material for two years, The Alexandria Quartet went back to Bergen, Norway, to work on new material. Coloured by the dark, rainy clouds and the harshness of Norwegian winter, the songs seemed to take on a darker, more psychedelic cloak. With their new sound, and the album title Light Drawings ready, the band contacted us for a visual make-over.

We wanted a look that reflected this new musical direction, which led us to shoot the band in a dark studio setting, and ultimately to combine photography with illustrations and handmade textures.

For the vinyl edition of the album we created a pattern that was engraved into the b-side of the second disc."

The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck by Marc Bessant

Link: Marc Bessant
Link: Merge Records