September 23, 2009 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under B+W Wednesday, Chris, For Sale, Our Artwork
Sometime soon I’m going to put together a black + white zine of random drawings, prints, sketches, collages, and experiments that have never really seen the light of day… in the meantime, here’s a mix in 72 dpi for your screen-viewing consideration.
(Below): This one here’s a remixed drawing of an album cover from a band called The Cairo Gang. I saw the used CD in a box at the Festival of Faith & Music at Calvin College a few years ago and had to buy it simply because of the awesome album art.
Oh and this is Franz Schubert. His “unfinished” Symphony No.8 rocks my socks off.
August 13, 2009 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under B+W Wednesday, Friends + Family, Life, Like + Love
With a special place in my heart for good-music-meets-good-design excellence, I’ve been really appreciating the aesthetic of 12k for the past couple of years. Founder, creative director, designer, sound artist, and photographer, Taylor Deupree appears (to me) to have The Dream Job. Tapping in to the seemingly infinite beauty of sound, bringing more of it to the world, and presenting it in a consistently beautiful way, through elegant photography, typography, and design. Man, I’d like to have that job.
Of all my records from Mr. Deupree, Northern, which might be his most highly-praised album (with good reason), is by far the most-cherished and most-played in my 12k collection. I first heard it a few years ago in the early stages of my newfound fascination with minimalist electro-acoustic music, when I was downloading every “ambient” album I could as soon as my monthly eMusic downloads refreshed. Being from Chicago myself, the fact that someone had created an electronic / electroacoustic record inspired by northern-ness was enough to make it immediately resonate with me, and I soaked up every delicate sound, every muted wintery color, every quiet image the music evoked (I’m pretty sure I first listened to it in the cold months of winter, which, even here in South Carolina, can get bone-chilling).
From 12k:
The inspiration behind Northern (including its music, title and photography) comes from Deupree’s recent relocation from the heart of urban activity in Brooklyn to the tranquility of the forest in upstate New York. Inspired by nature and the winter during which it was created, Northern, like much of his recent work, explores Deupree’s interest in stillness and a slowed sense of time. Through quiet textures, subtle movements, faint loops and echoes, it was his goal to create the type of music that comes naturally to him while also highlighting the input from his dramatic new surroundings.
In contrast to the brazen repetition found on Stil., Northern’s more ephemeral approach to Deupree’s theme comes from looking at the stillness found outside of his studio windows: large, looming boulders, the softness of snow, and the hushed whisper of wind and fallen leaves; it is a world of countless tiny movements so active that an implied stillness results from the din it creates.
Deupree has dedicated Northern to his closest friend of his teenage years, Bryan Charles Strniste, with whom he first started experimenting in electronic music over 20 years ago. Deupree’s relocation to a nearby area much like the one where he grew up spurred memories of those days of early musical playfulness. Thus, Northern became highly personal and nostalgic while at the same time breaking into new territory for Deupree, echoing the changes in his personal life.
* * *
So I was thrilled when, a little over a year ago, I discovered Deupree was re-issuing the album, with exquisite new packaging and with re-mixed and re-mastered audio:
Not content to merely order a re-pressing of the same masters on hand at the CD manufacturer, Taylor Deupree set out to create what he calls the “director’s cut” of one of the most important CDs in his catalog. The idea was to open the now-2-year-old computer files to re-mix and re-master the tracks. Of course over the course of years computers change, formats change, and Deupree found himself faced with missing plug-ins, errored sound files and other oddities that made working with the files difficult. What first seemed like roadblocks turned into a mission to work with what was there and re-do what was not. The result is a Northern that will, on the surface, seem quite similar to the original, however listeners will hear new sounds, extended endings, shortened endings and most of all, an overall mix that presents these works with a new clarity and spaciousness. Mastering in the analog domain has given the work a new found sense of delicacy and detail.
The packaging: a heavyweight cardboard wallet with debossed typography on the front cover. Inside are two pockets, one for the CD and one for a 24-page booklet of photography, credits, and lots of white space. All printing, as with the original, is in black and white.
I’m well aware this is the hottest time of year (almost unbearable here with the South Carolina humidity), but, with a little help from the AC, Northern can take you to a cooler place.
Buy the album here. And if you’re really into this kind of thing, I highly recommend downloading the original release as well.
See some of Taylor Deupree’s Northern photograph series here.
August 5, 2009 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under B+W Wednesday, Chris, For Sale, Our Artwork
Did these probably a year ago and thought I’d post them for today’s B+W. Does that make me lazy? Maybe. Probably. And also freaking SLAMMED with the graphic novel work. Page a day. No rest for the weary!
July 29, 2009 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under B+W Wednesday, Chris, For Sale, Friends + Family, Life, Our Artwork, Portraits
So, in an attempt to post more regularly, especially in the midst of crazy production workloads on this graphic novel, I’m thinking I could start doing some weekly themed posts. For starters, let’s try “Black + White Wednesday” eh? Then maybe “Music Monday” perhaps…
This here’s an early stage of an etching I did way back when in school. A portrait of a visiting high school student who came to college for some kind of annual high school fine arts festival… I saw him in the hall in the art building and said, “Uh, hey, can I take a picture of you to do your portrait?” I think his name was Damien, but I can’t remember for sure, but hey, he’s Damien now. HA. Some day I’ll scan in the finished stage etching. This image is cropped quite a bit, there’s alot more to it… it’s one of Annie’s and my favorite prints.
