Sum IV.1 Shortets (Artwork Details)

My past few albums have been video albums and haven't been formal digital releases or on vinyl. But with any album release you have to think about the artwork at some point. For this album once I got to design stage I had to listen to each piece of music and try to match it with some kind of image. In the beginning of the process I was looking at paintings of Botero. They seemed to fit with the pieces but as I looked further there were different paintings and photographs that worked with them as well. It can take quite a while to match an image with music–similar to scoring music for a film but it's the reverse process: you’re the art director. 

Matching visuals with music is less intuitive than you think. What you have to have is a sense of motion in a still image, as if it was a montage sequence in a film, or more accurately, the feeling of holding a record jacket, looking at the artwork, and listening to the music.

If you were to use AI by simply typing in text prompts with the titles, the images would be all stupid. You can't make the process automatic--there has to be some kind of reasoning around the connection between the music and the image.

Final Images

Figured Basses

If I were to search “figured basses” the results all have to do with figured bass. Searching “figured vases” gives me images of Athenian vases. You could use the pun for figured basses as portly basses and baritones. Ultimately I decided on the Daumier, a French caricature artist from the 19th century.

Paper Trampoline

You'd never find a literal representation of a paper trampoline, so you have to determine what images work with the music. They don't necessarily have to have any connection. Music videos usually weren't literal; they were more abstractions and more surrealist than they were literal. Final image: Artwork that Picasso made for the Erik Satie ballet Parade, 1917.

All The Way To North Dakota

The music was originally derived from a diary entry of Keith Haring when he was driving through North Dakota. but the image has nothing to do with that. It turns out that the Bosch painting excerpt worked perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

At the Parade

Music is derived from a diary entry from May 1966 when Bob Dylan and John Lennon were filmed riding in the back of a limo driving into central London. But obviously the literal approach would not have worked with a string quartet. Final image is a painting also titled Parade, by Fernande Leger.

Heaven As Home

I wanted to go with an ironic treatment on this one–Richard Hamilton’s Just What Is It That Makes Today's Home So Different, So Appealing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carmel

This was originally a piece of music that was about the town of Carmel California and Edward Weston, who had lived there for a time. But photographs of Carmel from 1930 weren’t interesting. So it's not California, but rather Kansas, and a scene from The Wizard of Oz that seemed to work well with it.

Sonya

Originally the idea related to Sonya one of the models of Edward Weston, and the phrase “Sonya sitting in a Mexican chair”, the rhythm of which became what the music is based on. I did find photographs of her–even one where she is sitting in a chair, but it didn't go with the music. So I decided on a painting of Madame de Pompadour by Carle.

Place Like Kansas

This one probably took the longest because I was looking at paintings of the heartland of the United States by various painters, and ultimately decided on the Andrew Wyeth painting of Christina Olson from 1947. Christina Olsen was a paraplegic. The other painting of her crawling across a field is the more iconic one, but it didn’t fit. The ironic thing is that this painting was painted in Maine, where Wyeth had a farm, so it's not about Kansas at all, but it certainly sounds like it could be. 

Reason II

Again, this is based on a diary entry of Keith Haring where he was talking about “reasons to” paint. Imagine trying to find an image that goes with that that goes with a string quartet! But another Hieronymus Bosch painting work very well.

Adirondack Wilderness

I had looked at a lot of Hudson River School paintings from the 19th century, but none of them seemed to work, but this photograph by Felix Thollier, works perfectly and has the proper mood. It’s not the Adirondacks.

Vintage of the Vinyl

The primary artist that I was looking at at the time was Francis Bacon because it has a surreal, edgy quality to it that I was looking for, but none of them worked. But Ed Paschke's Guitao (sic) certainly did.

Trouble In the Land

This is based on a phrase in the Martin Luther King's speech from April 3, 1968. None of the photographs from that time worked, but a Peter Paul Rubens did.

7-10 Dream

This is music I heard in a dream that had a slithery quality to it. but if you ask ChatGPT to come up with an image of a cat for example it would be incredibly stupid. But this Jim Nut painting worked perfectly.

Idea To Product

The first thought on this one was something to do with the design process, so I thought about Charles Eames, Bauhaus, the De Stijl movement, Gropius, and none of them worked, and I wound up using the Kandinsky.