Sorry I’ve neglected this blog for a while, got a lot on, but fear not i’ll be adding quite a bit of new stuff soon. In the meantime here’s a poster I’ve just put together for The Bradfordians Theatrical group for the their forthcoming production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Shakespeare’s seventeenth play is a deceptive comedy centred around two pairs of lovers; its themes and motifs (and ultimately the brief) being masks, rumour and infidelity, those of you that know sign-language will recognise the shape of the hands mean ‘to whisper’.

I recently wrapped up this latest double CD Digipack for Chick Corea, a new composition “in the spirit of Mozart” — where jazz, Latin, and classical converge into a globally inspired concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra. The Continents is performed by Corea with an all-star orchestra including members of the Harlem String Quartet and Imani Winds, among others — and conducted by Steven Mercurio at the Manhattan Center Studios.

The cover shows a hanging sculpture – ‘Roll’ – by Swedish artist  Stefan Fransson that is a mixed-media piece made out of Piano strings,vinyl and metal. The idea was to show a 3-Dimensional drawing, the strings working as lines in space, I thought the sculptures continuous sense of  motion, free flowing energy and inter-connected plates were not only indicative of the title but of the project as a whole.

Tucked safely inside the ‘New Blood’ gatefold LP will be this 7″ picture disc of ‘Solsbury Hill’.

The sleeve shows a detail from one of Andy Harper’s extremely detailed ‘Grass paintings’, whilst on the vinyl itself are micrographs of local grass and plant seeds shot by Steve G.

Soon to be released on RealWorld records comes ‘Foxlight’ by Iarla O Lionaird.

Fortunately for me, especially considering my current workload, this was all quite straightforward; Iarla wanted to use one of Susan Derges‘ photographs on the cover, I’d worked with her before so I knew we were in safe hands there, and Susan really liked the music – so far so good. We looked at several options eventually picking the one you see above. Some nice type in the corner et voila. Clean, serene and looks just how it sounds…

I’ve recently finished putting together the Deluxe Edition of PGs latest record ‘New Blood’; Containing DVD and BluRay of the Hammersmith Apollo concert, the new studio album as well as a CD of live recordings, add in 60 pages with over 200 colour photographs from York Tillyer of the recording, rehearsing and playing, it really is the ‘everything-but-the-kitchen-sink’ version. I had to turn this around very quickly (i always seem to be typing that) and it took a few late nights but i think the result was worth it. The cover shot is a colab between Steve Gschmeissner and myself, and shows a coloured scanned electron micrograph of red blood cells, a lymphocyte, a neutrophil, a macrophage and platelets in case you were wondering. York has put a short flick together so you can see inside here

New Blood – Deluxe Edition is released on 24th October for about £30, a bargain me thinks, from all the usual suspects.

Bill Evans was one of the great jazz piano players of all time, one of the pioneers of the jazz piano trio.  This is a particular art form that has become a important part of jazz culture. ’Further Explorations’ is a new album from Jazz trio – Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian – although not a tribute record this is a Bill Evans inspired project,(in fact the title itself is derived from the classic Bill Evans album from the 60s titled ‘Explorations’) with both Paul and Eddie being part of Evans’ original Trio and Chick Corea playing/composing new trio songs.

I started by looking at some of Paul Motians earlier work, especially the ECM sleeves (which are always so damn good) as i really wanted to get an aesthetic of atmosphere just like those. The triangle is obvious i suppose, a shape of three equal sides forming a whole made perfect sense considering the line-up. Then I waited for a cold, foggy day and smudged the shape with my thumb on the studio window, giving the viewer a glimpse of what lay beyond, perhaps encouraging them to ‘explore further’ (you see what i did then!).
Very happy with this one.

Working again with Steven Gschmeissner, the cover for ‘New Blood’ shows an embryonic stem cell on the tip of a needle (coloured for enhancement), for this sleeve I really wanted something that had a ‘point of origin’, the very beginning of things, along with an object associated with drawing blood or making a new mark;
Steve’s is a fantastic guy to work with, one minute I can say ‘whats a cell on the edge of a razor blade like?’ or ‘can we cut a cell in half?’ and sure enough within 48hrs a scanned electron micrograph drops into my inbox and they are always fascinating to look at.
As per usual, I came up with a number of options to show Peter, but there was something about this shot of Steve’s that really connected, both with the title and the overall theme of Peter’s current crop of audio/video recordings.

Recently finished poster for a local dramatic society production of Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’.

Alas not the official poster, still, its a brilliantly written play, full to the brim with dark imagery, which i just couldn’t help putting pen to paper over..

The sleeve-notes on the back sum it up perfectly – ‘In a place where imagination and reality overlap, Syriana conjures up images of the busy Damascus streets, jewel-like houses and desert suns – with a touch of spy movie menace.With otherworldly qanun and Arabic percussion, 1950’s guitar and sonorous double bass, A life in film is a Paris, Texas-like meditation from the Syrian desert.’

This is a vinyl version of Syriana’s ‘Road To Damascus’ album which I designed a few months back, and contains remixes and re-imaginations which are well worth a listen and, if possible, try to catch the show live.

The cover was shot by Russian photographer Larissa Korlara whilst travelling through Syria, I think her photographs manage to capture the mystery and romance of the Syrian desert whilst still being just a little dangerous.

Manila North Cemetery in Manila, Philippines is a place of rest for 3000 people, all of whom are alive.  When rich families first erected mausoleums for their dead in the late 1800s, they needed caretakers to maintain them and guard any valuables buried within.  In exchange for their work, the caretakers were allowed to live inside the mausoleums, and a cemetery community was born.  Gravekeepers grow gardens around tombs; chefs cook up hearty fare in restaurants alongside crypts; and children play basketball in between school and funerals.  Some residents are part of a long legacy of caretaking families; others are new transplants and find they must share their bed with an additional body.

‘Death Of A Cemetery’ is an inspiring independent documentary made by Phil Britton and Jeanie Duque-Dizon, I was asked to work on the titles which in turn led to me doing a poster (above). Paint, pens and mac.

Official site here