Call it what you want: post-folk. Trad-noir. Folk nihilism. Then know that Spafford Campbell — virtuosic twentysomethings, fiddle-player Owen Spafford and guitarist/vocalist Louis Campbell — are blazing a trail that erases genre, finds gold in the embers. Forget about tomorrow, they say. Welcome to the now.
CD & LP design. Photography by Peter Mitchel.
Available on vinyl for the first time for Record Store Day 2025.
Originally released in 2000, OVO boasts a stellar cast, including Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser, Neneh Cherry, Alison Goldfrapp and Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile.
2xLP 180gram orange and blue colour vinyl, gatefold sleeve, printed inner bags, 12×12 booklet with the Story of OVO, and hi-res download code. Beautiful art and photography from NILS UDO throughout.
‘Constant Noise’ - a passionate expression of anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic and toxic rhetoric told through the filter of brutal, eviscerating music.
I really enjoyed helping the band with this one. Bold, bright, brash, conflictingly harmonious, great lyrics and music. Limited edition LP shown, available from Invada Records.
Imbued with the spirit of their late uncle, the qawwali master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali have returned with another deeply accomplished, moving collection of songs that ache with the frenzied anxiety of falling in love and dreamy desire of devotion, At the Feet of the Beloved. Their vocals and arrangements are refined and, together with their party, they build a world that helps the listener connect to another one.
LP and CD. Photography by Mobbed Ansari
Toydrum's score to Alice Lowe's cult-classic 'Timestalker'.
The album features the film’s original music, composed by Emmy-nominated Toydrum (Prevenge, Slow Horses, Platform 7, Three Pines, Deep Water, The Banishing) and is available as a limited edition of 300. The vinyl is presented in pastel pink, cover art as per the UK quad.
This LP is only available directly from Invada Records.
Chain of Light is an album of previously unheard recordings of the singer and his qawwal party made at Real World Studios in 1990, whilst he was at the height of his vocal capabilities. Carefully restored from the original analogue tapes, this ‘lost album’ of traditional qawwals includes a pristine recording of the much-loved classic ‘Ya Allah Ya Rehman’, as well the only known performance of ‘Ya Gaus Ya Meeran’.
LP presented with tip-on portrait (by Guido Harari) on indented colour board, with gold foil typography and 12” book of liner notes
I really enjoyed working on this record, because the story of how it came to be is fascinating - inspired by a discovery of letters, journals, and photographs sent to her friend Zoe’s mother – Geraldine Flower, revealing an enchanting free-spirit who defied societal norms. In Emilíana’s own words; “Miss Flower lived adventurously and, on her terms, she led with something other than marriage and convention, a fearless loyalty to her truth. She had nine proposals and never married. Men were obsessed with her, and some letters are of that heartbreak, some of great lust, some reference espionage, and secret meetings and others are very humorous. For me as a lyric writer I was in heaven. Zoe gave me so much artistic licence and her own stories of her mum wove nicely in with the letters”.
Released on lipstick red vinyl and CD from Groenland Records and available from Emiliana's website and all good music outlets.
Lots of old photos and letters to play with in the design; the cover is a time-travelling moment, a casually captured conversation between Emilíana and Miss Flower. The inner sleeves and labels are a collage of the original letters and pictures, and the back cover a piece of black carbon paper. All type from an old typewriter.
For more on the story visit emilianatorrini.com or even better just listen to the record.
Just before Christmas 2023 I spoke with Geoff Barrow and later, Billy Fuller about the artwork for the forthcoming album from Beak> ‘>>>>’. Geoff envisaged a front cover photograph of the band fighting, in the style of some old martial arts magazines from the 80’s, and Billy talked about having Alfie (Geoff’s dog) on the back cover, towering over the Clifton Suspension Bridge firing love-lasers from his eyes down onto the band looking up from the banks of the river below. Photographer Hollin Jones was tasked with shooting the band for both elements of the sleeve, as well as for promo shots - his pictures were the basis of which to start building the front and back. I worked on varying treatments of the fighting front cover whilst slowly building up the composition of the ‘Dogzilla’ reverse, adding textures, colour, and compositing many separate pieces until it soon it became obvious that the bridge back was saying a lot more about this album than the fighting front - therefore everyone agreed a switch for the better should be made. Once the artwork was finished and delivered for print, an omitted ‘river of upside down peas’ was printed on to sticker sheets and individually applied to LPs bought at gigs. Released on LP and CD through Invada records, Beak> ‘>>>>’ is an excellent album, well-worthy of the attention it is receiving. Go fetch now!
A new double album out May 10, serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport that Fleck and Corea first showcased at album length with 2007’s Latin Grammy-winning 'The Enchantment'. Bela got in touch with me to do the design, and of course I was very happy to oblige. I miss talking with Chick, but the music carries on the wind. Two great players - CD & LP now available for pre-order from www.belafleck.com
Deluxe box set edition of Peter Gabriel I/O - presented in a foil-blocked, clamshell box, containing Bright-Side and Dark-Side LPs in bespoke sleeves, across 4 pieces of black vinyl.
Bright-Side and Dark-Side mixes on CD, plus Blu-ray disc of In-Side Mixes (Dolby Atmos) with 24/96 versions of the Bright-Side and Dark-Side stereo mixes, housed within a 56-page casebound book of expanded liner notes - Peter Gabriel discussing each track, accompanied by artwork and insights from visual artists Ai Weiwei, Nick Cave, Olafur Eliasson, Henry Hudson, Annette Messager, Antony Micallef, David Moreno, Cornelia Parker, Megan Rooney, Tim Shaw, David Spriggs and Barthélémy Toguo.
Expanded cover art poster, and i/o bookmark download code.
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The grey uncoated box cover shows an 8-bit impression of Peters eye, patiently (and painfully) created from small squares then foil-blocked to the box lid with Kurz Light Line Laser foil, which appears silver but reflects light in all colours of the spectrum. The metal-die itself was a thing to behold, incredibly complicated tooling which pushed the limits of what a stamp this big is capable of - It was touch and go as to whether the design would hold, fortunately it did.
The box contains four LPs, each record sleeve printed inside and out with neon Pantone inks, created to clash and harmonise, work separately and together; the covers showing an extreme close-up of Peter’s eye. A 56-page case-bound book, full colour plus one spot neon Pantone ink throughout, with bookmark download card and 3xdiscs (neon inks again) secured in book-end pockets. Also poster of expanded I/O sleeve photograph by Nadav Kander. The box was wrapped with an obi-band in yet another neon printed ink.
The idea was to create a design that both argued and agreed, clashed and complimented, opposites working together, reflecting many of the themes/songs of I/O. From the very beginning I wanted to use bright colours, in my opinion its a very positive ‘light exuding’ album. I contrasted colours and textures throughout to give off that energy.
Each element being ‘just a part of everything’
25th Anniversary Edition of Portishead - Roseland NYC Live; recorded and filmed at New York’s Roseland Ballroom with a 28-piece orchestra in 1997, then released in 1998.
Remastered 2 x LPs pressed on solid red vinyl, housed within a gatefold sleeve, containing a double-sided fold-out poster, and facsimile guest pass from the concert.
Available on LP and CD from Portishead Store and all good music outlets.
This really is a great recording of a brilliant concert.
Just over a year ago (Nov2022) design work began in earnest on Peter Gabriel’s album I/O. Initial meetings with Peter went well and we soon established a mark which would become the I/O logo which would then be used on recordings and touring for the year ahead. Simple geometric shapes, influenced by Bauhaus design, representing male and female forms, divided yet connected. I was keen to use bright neon colours which both clashed and complemented, a design ‘argument’ which reflected many of the themes in the songs - division and cohesion, isolation and connectivity, in and out.
Peter wanted to work with different artists on each song so we researched many, making suggestions for and against until we had a dozen or so which were then approached to contribute. Fortunately all that were approached were happy to be involved, so once a month a digital single was released each featuring a piece of work from that particular artist - culminating in what would become the book in the LP/CD packaging.
Artificial Intelligence, and the rate at which the world was changing because of it, was also a conversation point during our meetings - so I attempted to illustrate this by using a high resolution photograph, a distorted image, and a heavily pixelated (to the point of being made of painstakingly-placed tiny squares) version of Peter’s eye. All three examples would be used throughout the I/O campaign.
We had worked with Nadav Kander previously (Scratch My Back), he is a wonderful photographer and he and Peter get on very well, something very obvious from the quality of the shoot - the cover image is a detail from a set of shots - some more obscure(d) than others, a portrait of moving parts, duality, strength and vulnerability, hiding in - looking out.
The back cover shows a high-resolution image of the surface of Io, the innermost and third-largest of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter c/o our good friends at NASA.
Gatefold Sleeve CMYK+1 (left and right eye), 2xLPs, 32 page CMYK+1 booklet; CD/BR tri-fold and barn-door digipaks, 32 page CMYK+1 booklet and neon labels. Each format was attributed its own neon Pantone obi strip.
I/O LP (Bright-Side Mixes)
I/O LP (Dark-Side & Bright-Side Mixes) including neon pms obi strips
I/O LP (Bright Side Mixes) open gatefold sleeve
I/O LP (Dark-Side Mixes) 32 page book cover
I/O LP book spread
I/O CD & Blu-ray 8-panel digipak
I/O CD 6-panel digipak (inside) and booklet spread
Peter Gabriel I/O - LP / CD / CD&BR
2023 saw Peter Gabriel tour his (then) forthcoming album ‘I/O’ across 34 venues in Europe, North America and Canada. I was tasked with coming up with the graphic identity for the I/O tour, including all print promotion and web assets, which I wanted to be different clashing/harmonious neon colours per territory, as well as all the merchandise at the shows themselves, which meant t-shirts, hoodies, VIP packages, etc - oh and the little matter of a 100 page programme. Lots of late nights which I hope contributed to a good night out for many.
Peter Gabriel - I/O The Tour 2023 Programme spreads
A re-issue project that took a little while to come into full bloom but was entirely worth the wait. Daniel Mason (Something Else) deconstructed the original, taking the deepest and most detailed of dives to faithfully recreate the 1967 box set, both in materials and process. I approached the graphics in the same way, redrawing the type, resetting, scanning and cleaning up the illustrations from original source, re-photographing and retouching the photography - the entire box and contents rebuilt from the bottom up. Limited Edition of 500 handmade vinyl box sets individually hand-signed by Donovan available from donovan.ie and select retailers. Released by State51
Land Of My Other is a place of memories and melodies, lyricism and lore. A place of sunlight, faerie-tales and rowan trees; of grief, incarceration and thunder in darkness. A place where ancestral trauma and colonial injustice meet blazing pride, romantic self-rule and hands held in a circle in the sea. Where songs are sung with feeling, instruments are everywhere and music lives deep in the bones.
Produced by renowned composer/pianist Thomas Bartlett, and with the wildly acclaimed duo that is singer Ríoghnach Connolly and guitarist Stuart McCallum at its core.
Land of My Other. The third studio album by The Breath. Available now from Real World records on CD and LP
Tree is eight immersive compositions that take the listener through twenty-four hours in the life of one of nature’s most majestic creations. The album imagines what it would be like to be sat completely still under a tree that you love, being alive to the ever-shifting interplay of light, colour, weather and sound. Summoning the folkloric power of ancient forests through a crescendo in emotion and sound, before bringing us back to sunrise, and a reflection on the journey we’ve taken.
Out 22 September,available to pre-order now on CD/LP from Real World Records
Cover image from The Tree Crown Series by Tom Hegen
www.tomhegen.com
Inner sleeve: Nerve endings in muscle. Light micrograph of motor neuron end plates in muscle. The neuron ends in several terminal boutons. These form neuromuscular junctions, a type of synapse (nerve junction), where they meet the muscle cells. Signals are relayed from the end plates to the muscle by the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Brightfield illumination. Magnification: x50 at 35mm size.
LP design for the soundtrack to the Netflix series ‘Archive 81’ by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow. Pieced together from various production stills with a heavy dose of televisual distortion. I really enjoyed watching this show, and the music is an integral part of its success. Available from Invada imminently..
This is the limited edition, alternative art, mail-order variant of Clint Mansell’s score to Ben Wheatley’s ‘In The Earth’ - featuring die-cut front cover with reversible inner-sleeve art, psychedelic stills and orange marble vinyl. I was very pleased how this turned out and there may even be a couple left at the Invada store!
“Anomaly is my way of shining a light on Indian classical music, on the music that comes naturally to me as a product of my surroundings as well as my training.” He pauses. “On the music that is my purpose in life.”
LP and CD design for ‘Anomaly’ - the beautiful debut album from Jasdeep Singh Degun. Working with illustrator Dilrani Kaur to create bright delicate paintings set on richly coloured canvas’, portrait photography by Robert Leslie. ‘Anomaly’ is available on Real World records now, you can read more about the album here
Cover and inner sleeves
Inner gatefold sleeve
Key albums in the Real World Records catalogue, these reissues, some for the first time on vinyl, are a series celebrating great African artists who came to Real World Studios in Wiltshire, UK to make their recordings. Available soon on LP and CD. As well as the CD/LP design, I was tasked with creating a series identity for the Africa Sessions and carrying that through each album.
Omar Pene and Super Diamono - Direct from Dakar
Farafina - Faso Denou
King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal I - Talazo Fuji Music Party!
Master Musicians Of Jajouka - Jajouka Between The Mountains
Remmy Ongala & Orchestre Super Matimila - Songs For The Poor Man
S.E.Rogie - Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana