Curse me for considering Brexit or any politics important! What a waste of thought and energy to think about politics, or anything we cannot control, for a single second.
A full day working on the I, Sisyphus artwork. I must get this done. Sometimes these designs come easily, as in The Infinite Forest, but then, for that I had a previous idea to work from and rather a clear idea of what to do with it. Often my album art now takes a long time, with lots of options, hammering away at designs and variations of designs until I produce something I'm happy with.
My initial idea was a rock with a skeleton draped over it, but it lacked the impact, from a distance, that I wanted:
So I thought I would, for a change, hand draw an idea, a man rolling a rock over a huge skull:
Then it was a matter of processing and colouring the result. I chose orange and blakc first to emulate Greek pottery:
Then a few different options:
All have different pros and cons, but all look good at all scales. More to do on these, but I think a variation of this will be my main cover. I'm unsure whether to design the full 8-page booklet and CD artwork yet - I always like to, but it is a lot of work to commit to when the music isn't finished and I'm unsure if I'll make any CDs. I rarely sell any these days. I'm certain I will one day, but my primary motivation for making them now is to create that physical item that is music and art combined - digital music is so ephermeral - it lacks value, and has less art in it, it feels 'fake'.
Today I received a copy of the Pola X soundtrack CD by Scott Walker, it cost me £35, which is apparently cheap for this - it's not in production and probably never will be. The only copies are second hand. The music varies in quality (not all of it is by Mr Engels, the Bill Callahan track is particularly egregious, it sounds like a Micheal Bublé record) but the orchestral tracks by Scott Walker are among his best music; 'Light' is trancendentally beautiful.
