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jamesusilljournal · 1 year

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Art direction for @betsy by way of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, Mat Maitland, 2021

#Mat Maitland #Wild At Heart #Horror Art #Halloween #David Lynch

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artvinyl · 4 months

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Uncovered: Sub Focus - Evolve

As we continue to explore the artworks for some of this year’s shortlisted albums for the Best Art Vinyl 2023 Award, next up is English DJ, record producer and musician Nicolaas Douwma aka Sub Focus and his fourth album 'Evolve' which was created by Mat Maitland from the award winning creative consultancy Big Active.

We caught up with Mat who gave us an insight into the creative concepts and processes for the artwork. He told us, "With any new project we like to discuss things thoroughly before starting to present ideas and for this album it was very collaborative in establishing the creative route."

Big Active had a good starting point for the project and a rich history with Sub Focus having worked on three previous albums with him - ‘Portals’, ‘Reworks I’ and ‘Torus’ and Mat explains, "Often with music campaigns, we are honing in on two things primarily - the central concept and the visual aesthetic.”

Sub Focus & Wilkinson - ‘Portals’ EMI (2020) artwork by Big Active

Sub Focus ‘Reworks I’ RAM records (2021) artwork by Big Active

Sub Focus - ’Torus’ RAM Records, Virgin EMI Records (2013) artwork by Big Active

We asked Mat about the inspirations for the current album artwork for 'Evolve', he says, "Conceptually there was something early on that came out of our discussions with Nicolaas, the idea of Nudibranchs - a group of tiny soft-bodied molluscs that live under water, noted for their extraordinary colours and striking forms. Nicolaas is a keen diver and had come across these on his travels. Straight away we felt that this was a really interesting thing to base the campaign on. Firstly, it was an unusual subject matter and secondly it talked to the title ‘Evolve’ perfectly - having a synergy with human evolution as well as sonic mutations symbolised in the music itself."

Mat explains, "Aesthetically we didn’t want to just use straight documentary images of Nudibranchs, so we had some decisions to make in how to present the concept. I had been working on a personal project the previous year with digital artist Claudia Rafael and felt that she would be a great collaborator in elevating how the forms were depicted. After collating a huge bank of imagery we decided to remove any sense of environment, instead having them live in a void of darkness to elevate their impact but also remove any concept of scale. Working with Claudia, we processed all of this source material through GAN machine learning. This is a process whereby the computer is learning to mimic and re-render the imagery and while doing so, creates less accurate versions of it. It also starts mixing up and combining elements from all the separate images to create new versions."

This re-rendered concept and technique was continued for the accompanying single release artworks and, taking the creative concept to a fully immersive offering, Mat and the team also produced a set of animations for each of the releases for an installation at the album launch where the work was projected on huge immersive LED screens.

Calling For a Sign - Sub Focus 2023

Fine Day - Sub Focus (single cover)

I Found You - Sub Focus (single cover)

Vibrations - Sub Focus (single cover)

Mat continues, "So, this ‘evolutionary’ theme was also inherent in the creation of the final album cover imagery itself which we then took to its full conclusion by producing a ‘lenticular’ LP format where the images animate and evolve in front of your eyes. As GAN renders out thousands of images it was a process of curation with Nicolaas in deciding which frames were chosen for the artwork. Once we had decided on the isolated frames (for the main cover art) we then used the frames either side of this for the lenticular LP…which uses five separate images to create the ‘morph’."

The 'Evolve' lenticular album cover fills Art Vinyl’s album-artwork-archivist hearts with joy. It really is something to be seen in the flesh, morphing before your very eyes and epitomising the joy of owning the physical vinyl release. Another masterpiece of album artwork added to the Best Art Vinyl annals.

Lenticular LP of Sub Focus - Evolve by Big Active Design

Evolve by Sub Focus on EMI Records is shortlisted for the Best Art Vinyl 2023 Award. Art Direction by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design & Nicolaas Douwma. Artificial Intelligence by Claudia Rafael. Design by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design.

#best art vinyl #record cover art #record frame #flip frame #vinyl record frame #lp cover frame #contemporary art #lenticular #album art #bestartvinyl2023 #art prize #art and design

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chrisryanspeaks · 1 year

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HEAR: Alison Goldfrappp Shares Upbeat, Electro-Pop Track “NeverStop”

Alison Goldfrapp has shared the second single “NeverStop” from her upcoming album The Love Invention and we’re getting even more excited for what she has in store for us. The bouncy, electro-pop single is meticulously layered with hypnotic synths back with Alison’s lush, expansive soprano vocal. Feels: like bouncing on fluffy clouds Sounds: like Goldfrapp but poppier More on Alison Goldfrapp: British synth-pop visionary Alison Goldfrapp today returns with a fresh taster from her highly anticipated debut solo album, The Love Invention, with the groove-laden new track “NeverStop.” Set for release on May 12thvia the coveted Skint Records/BMG Music, The Love Invention promises to be an evolutionary next chapter in the multi-faceted artist’s forward-thinking yet timeless discography. On “NeverStop,” Alison is flooded by the rush of an all-encompassing love over a buoyant, rubberized beat; it’s a tantalizing menagerie of staccato synths and a driving four-to-the-floor rhythm. The new single is accompanied by a kaleidoscopic video vignette directed in collaboration with Mat Maitland (Big Active), who also directed the visual for last month’s cosmic song “So Hard So Hot.” Treated with a range of AI techniques to create extreme fluctuations on a spectrum that glides towards radical fantasy, the result is a mythical world that is both powerful and fragile. About the track, Alison reflects, “‘NeverStop’ is about always feeling the wonder. Committing to connect with each other, nature and our surroundings while trying to navigate through the contradictions and complexities of life.” The Love Invention, which was executively produced and co-written by Alison, marks her reawakening as a dancefloor priestess, in an intoxicating showcase of the disco and house influences that have always been at the heart of her musical DNA. It features collaborations with the likes of production mastermind Richard X (Pet Shop Boys, M.I.A.), James Greenwood (Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens) and Toby Scott (The Gossip, Annie). Alison recently sat down with the New York Times to detail her trajectory towards, and creation of, her first solo album and creating an “album of dance music that reflects her craving for euphoria.” Click HERE to read the piece. Alison’s dedicated approach to pop innovation has firmly situated her as the rare leftfield artist who has been embraced by the pop mainstream without diluting one iota of her individuality. Goldfrapp scaled the charts, with multi-platinum album sales, unforgettable Glastonbury performances, multiple Grammy nominations and an Ivor Novello for “Strict Machine.” The momentum towards her journey into solo music was solidified back in 2021, when she collaborated with Röyksopp on two tracks for their seventh album “Profound Mysteries”, culminating in the brightly shimmering track “Impossible.” Read the full article

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audiofuzz · 1 year

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HEAR: Alison Goldfrappp Shares Upbeat, Electro-Pop Track “NeverStop”

Alison Goldfrapp has shared the second single “NeverStop” from her upcoming album The Love Invention and we’re getting even more excited for what she has in store for us. The bouncy, electro-pop single is meticulously layered with hypnotic synths back with Alison’s lush, expansive soprano vocal. Feels: like bouncing on fluffy clouds Sounds: like Goldfrapp but poppier More on Alison Goldfrapp: British synth-pop visionary Alison Goldfrapp today returns with a fresh taster from her highly anticipated debut solo album, The Love Invention, with the groove-laden new track “NeverStop.” Set for release on May 12thvia the coveted Skint Records/BMG Music, The Love Invention promises to be an evolutionary next chapter in the multi-faceted artist’s forward-thinking yet timeless discography. On “NeverStop,” Alison is flooded by the rush of an all-encompassing love over a buoyant, rubberized beat; it’s a tantalizing menagerie of staccato synths and a driving four-to-the-floor rhythm. The new single is accompanied by a kaleidoscopic video vignette directed in collaboration with Mat Maitland (Big Active), who also directed the visual for last month’s cosmic song “So Hard So Hot.” Treated with a range of AI techniques to create extreme fluctuations on a spectrum that glides towards radical fantasy, the result is a mythical world that is both powerful and fragile. About the track, Alison reflects, “‘NeverStop’ is about always feeling the wonder. Committing to connect with each other, nature and our surroundings while trying to navigate through the contradictions and complexities of life.” The Love Invention, which was executively produced and co-written by Alison, marks her reawakening as a dancefloor priestess, in an intoxicating showcase of the disco and house influences that have always been at the heart of her musical DNA. It features collaborations with the likes of production mastermind Richard X (Pet Shop Boys, M.I.A.), James Greenwood (Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens) and Toby Scott (The Gossip, Annie). Alison recently sat down with the New York Times to detail her trajectory towards, and creation of, her first solo album and creating an “album of dance music that reflects her craving for euphoria.” Click HERE to read the piece. Alison’s dedicated approach to pop innovation has firmly situated her as the rare leftfield artist who has been embraced by the pop mainstream without diluting one iota of her individuality. Goldfrapp scaled the charts, with multi-platinum album sales, unforgettable Glastonbury performances, multiple Grammy nominations and an Ivor Novello for “Strict Machine.” The momentum towards her journey into solo music was solidified back in 2021, when she collaborated with Röyksopp on two tracks for their seventh album “Profound Mysteries”, culminating in the brightly shimmering track “Impossible.” Read the full article

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snakerij · 1 year

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