I've had a bad time with actually getting into the Secret 7 exhibition, and this year I didn't even send my piece off. However, I do think it's a fantastic idea for a charitable project that gets lots of people talking about and engaging with the creative arts - which can only be good.
I listened to all of the tracks and picked Max Richter's beautiful Dream 3. It's a sparse piano piece without words. This led me to think of a record sleeve without any graphic design or art adorning its' sleeve.
From here I went forth into the realms of record sleeves as objects, touching on Aphex Twin's Syro special edition (design; The Designers Republic) with its' perspex sleeve housing white sleeves & Nik Colk Void's 'Gold E' which has the record pressed a second time onto its' polyurethane cover, thus creating a 'living sound piece'.
In many way, album art is a funny thing; why do we need this visual accompaniment?
Either way, my lust for perspex drove me to purchase sheets of clear perspex that would be laser cut into a housing for the pure white record sleeve. The perspex would have no other mark on it - reflecting the sparsity of the track. Unfortunately, clear perspex is not a forgiving material, burning and producing ugly brown marks. I moved onto transparent black perspex which did a much better job of hiding these marks and actually suited the cloudy atmosphere of the track more than the clear perspex.
I'm incredibly pleased with the outcome of this project. It's a beautiful, weighty object that although was a practical endeavour in terms of holding the record and not leading the viewer away from the track with extraneous info - does manage to sum up the weight and stillness of the track.
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