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we reached out to drew and he was into it. soon we were going back and forth with him exchanging ideas for the piece. fast forward to a few months later and we're all sitting here in awe of the video he'd made for us. matt pusti then said he was going to make an EP in support of it, with "time" as the title track. the great folks over at data airlines agreed to put the EP out on vinyl, and asked that we might make a record sleeve that used images from the video. we hope you dig the results.

it was up to us to find a way to talk about the concept of "chiaro scuro" with emilie's photos and any other elements we saw fit. the result is a piece that talks not just about light and shadow, but also the nature, shape and form of sound. 

the packaging is an attempt to turn the digital graphics 65 created on their computer screens during the year into an original lasting physical experience one could see and touch. in and of itself a reminder perhaps of one of the strangest years of our shared lives thus far.

in the fall of 2019 matt, jonathan bates (singer and songwriter of big black delta) and caspar went to death valley together to take some time off. later when jon had finished his latest album he expressed an interest in using the images from that trip for the album's accompanying artwork. thus every image you see through the album's packaging and the digital singles that went with it, were images taken from this trip. in particular the cover image was taken by caspar, whilst every other image was taken by matt.

this was the story matt pusti (AKA makeup and vanity set) had written and was thus scoring the soundtrack for when he created this album. what you see here is the logo design and record sleeve artwork we created to reflect this narrative.

the record is available through dais records on vinyl, cd and all streaming services. if you have the means, we cannot recommend a physical copy of the record enough. it offers a rich accompaniment to what is already a really beautiful listening experience.

working in collaboration with the photographer, jeff brown, we sourced various objects, built a series of sets in our studio and got to work arranging and lighting things. caspar then created abstract interpretations of the same photographs and used those as counterpoint pieces throughout the layouts. the resulting package we feel speaks to the music in both direct and indirect ways.

the landscape paintings you see embedded into the various covers are by another of our long-term collaborators, john delucca.

the record is available here in various physical and digital formats.

the record features the talents of many friends including big black delta, the protomen, witchoria and joey ciccoline. the short film accompanying the record's release and is featured in part in the album's video trailer above.

the cover up is likely just the first in a series of exceptionally well recorded collections of cover songs from the band. needless to say it was our job to create artwork for the record that deliberately wove it into the protomen's overall narrative arc. this included nothing less than asking friends to voice characters in the various "movie scenes" dotted throughout the recording.

the idea here was to make a movie soundtrack to a film that was made and exists within the protomen's ongoing story. in doing so we asked john delucca that he might once again bless us with his exceptional drawning and painting talents. caspar and commander then sewed everything together to make a vinyl record release we're very proud of.

we hope you enjoy the work.

the music video for the album's first single, stitches, was an attempt to bring back the feeling of using the sinclair ZX spectrum computer, whilst detailing some of the album's narrative elements. paul and caspar wrote the video's story, which expanded upon the lyrics jonathan bates from big black delta was singing on the song. john delucca then beautifully redrew and further illustrated the graphics caspar had made for the vinyl record's packaging in pixel art format, and josiah newbolt then animated those graphics.

the record sleeve we made for the album—with the help of matt sundin—is, as front-man joe shrewsbury put it, "a beautiful expressoin of human love." please read the full story on the making of the artwork here. all photography by matt sundin, except the heavy sky EP.