Massive Attack - 'Atlas Air EP'

From Vinyl Factory (a company that got a decent mention in my Masters thesis)

Limited Edition

Availability: In Stock

£25

Product Details:

• Limited to just 1,000 copies worldwide, this beautifully presented and individually numbered vinyl and art edition has been crafted by The Vinyl Factory, working in close collaboration with Massive's Robert del Naja and designer Tom Hingston.
• This is the only physical release of Massive's stunning new three-track EP, 'Atlas Air', in aid of War Child, featuring a remix of 'Red Light' by Warp artist Clark, and remixes of 'Atlas Air' by Jneio Jarel from Shape of Broad Minds and DFA and Heligoland producer Tim Goldsworthy.
• Each edition includes a 180-gram heavyweight vinyl record, pressed on the legendary EMI 1400, with laser-etched labels on either side.
• The vinyl is housed in a screen printed yellow fluoro and glitter covered sleeve, featuring the 'Minstrels' painting by Robert del Naja, produced on pristine Colourplan white board with solid black inner lining.
• Each copy is hand-stamped.
• All proceeds will be donated to War Child.

• Available to pre-order now; released 29 November

Product info:
• 180-gram heavyweight vinyl
• Screen printed yellow fluoro and glitter covered sleeve
• Hand stamped

Watch Edouard Salier's video for 'Atlas Air' here

Dead Formats series

Bockingford Ex Rough 300gsm haunted by the ghosts of music past.
Set of three.
Edition of 20.

Monkey Journey From The West packaging

From: Creative Review
Date: 30/10/08

The Vinyl Factory - a company in London that owns Phonica record store, EMI's old vinyl pressing plant in Middlesex and FACT magazine, has recently started to produce limited edition musical packages for vinyl-lovers... The first package they did was a boxed edition of Beautiful Future for Primal Scream but we've just clapped our eyes on their second project – which packages sumputously the music and artwork of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's Monkey Journey To The West – and felt duty-bound to post up some images:

The red, cloth-effect box measures approx 40cm wide, 35cm high and 4cm deep

Open the box to find the text-free cover of a gatefold double vinyl pack...

Remove the gatefold vinyl pack and a folded print on bible paper to find a small book of artwork housed snugly in a foam surround...

Open up the vinyl pack to reveal more artwork on the inside and also on the two printed inner sleeves. The music is spread over three sides of the vinyl discs with the fourth side adorned with etched illustrations by Hewlett

Here's that etched vinyl

So, to recap - here's what you get when you purchase this box: Double vinyl pack, small exclusive book of artwork and an art print on bible paper - not to mention the code to download a digital version of the album

We can't deny that this box set is lovingly conceived and produced to a very high standard. In fact it feels like pretty good value for £65 - although we are left wondering how we'd store it at home... The fact is that we've become so used to storing music digitally that being faced with such a nicely produced, oversize box of vinyl and printed goodies is slightly discombobulating. And let's face it, this isn't something to keep with your other records. It's a collectors item that demands to be kept somewhere safely away from the harbingers of greasy fingerprints and clumsy hands...

The Vinyl Factory's Sean Bidder also told us that there will be a special edition of the Monkey box set that will cost £250. So what do you get for such a sum, we hear you ask? Sean sent us a list of what will be included within the clothbound, foilblocked box:

• Four exclusive Jamie Hewlett giclee-on-somerset prints, each stamped, dated and numbered, one signed.
• Exclusive hardback, cloth covered 78-page 12" size art book containing story, exclusive sketches and illustrations.
• Two super-heavyweight 200-gram vinyl LPs will be housed in the book, containing six bonus tracks not available on the commercial release. Pressed on the classic EMI 1400, with one-side specially etched.

Also, when you purchase the box, you also receive a digital version of the album. And, if you're among the first 500 customers to order the box set, you will also receive a custom-made special limited edition Monkey Om Box, with musical tones composed by Damon Albarn and artwork designed by Jamie Hewlett. As soon as this is ready (release date of the special edition is next week) we will endeavour to post up images here on the CR blog. In the meantime, read more about The Vinyl Factory's collectible box sets here.

Slightly Windy by José Ferrufino

From: Dezeen
Date: 26/08/10

Slightly Windy / Reuge (music box makers)


This was a project done at ÉCAL for Reuge in collaboration with the Campana brothers. Reuge is a music box manufacturer company since 1865. They possess an incomparable knowledge and craftsmanship in music box making.

Before visiting the Reuge manufactury, I had never seen nor heard an authentic 144 blade music box. I was moved by the beauty and the finesse of the mechanism creating the movement and the melody. It takes us to a world of lightness and gentleness.

There had to be a way to transpose and intensify this emotion into the new music box.

This is how the music box works:

The motor gives movement to the cylinder. The pins on the cylinder hit the blades of the keyboard. The pins are placed accordingly to the music chosen in order to play the right notes. It is this action that creates the melody.

The music box Slightly Windy uses this movement to animate the barley. It translates the lightness of nature being lulled by wind and music.

Since the power generated by the motor is just enough to create the rotation of the cylinder; one of the challenges of this project was to enable the barley to move without creating a resistance that could slow or stop the motor.

The mechanism parts are made of brass. It has a gold look-a-like effect and good machining properties. The resonance case is made out of peach tree wood known for its musical properties. It is used for musical instruments because of its resonance. Real barley painted in gold is used at the tip of the brass tubes.

The track ('Son of a Preacher Man' by Dusty Springfield) played by the box was custom made.

>>>


I like this although I don't get the relevance of 'Son of a Preacher Man'. Maybe 'I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester' or a piece of music more elegantly pastoral would have worked better? However, it did remind me of the very limited edition music box that Badly Drawn Boy produced back in 2000 that played eleven seconds of his 'I Love You All'. And I'd love to see one of these being used to translate some futuristic techno track via those cute enchanting chimes.

Unkle - Where Did The Night Fall by Ben Drury

Ltd. edition packaging for Unkle's fifth album Where Did The Night Fall designed by Ben Drury. I'm probably being a bit pedantic by wondering where the question mark is but, aside from that, I like the previously assumed incongruous fusion of the luxe metallic finish and erotic-themed photography with a font that appears informed by graffiti/tagging. It balances it out nicely so that it doesn't become too much of one particular thing: with sensual imagery coupled with hard-edged qualities plus 'street' elements that are restrained enough to remain sophisticated.

Portishead - Third by Marc Bessant

Originally documented at: Sleevage.com


Designer Marc Bessant:

“After the ten year gap from the last record I knew the only visual which had stuck in the public eye had been the ‘P’ character, it was an established brand which I wanted to not only reintroduce but reinforce. We were keen to avoid anything ‘conceptual’, no puns or noir imagery, that was all dead to us, I wanted to present a box, which simply holds the music, with the least amount of information on it which would ultimately say everything – essential minimalism – which I felt captured the Eastern Bloc coldness of some of the music I was hearing in the studio.”

Ghostly International Editions

Ghostly has to be one of my favourite labels and I referenced Mike Cina's work for the company during my last project. The symbiotic relationship between music and art has proved inspiring and, especially after news of the Matthew Dear 'Totem', I'm really interested to see how they further develop the approach to physical products in the digital age.

Here is another aspect to what the label is doing with the availability of images created as 'packaging' now becoming available as prints alongside digital downloads of the associated music.

The press release:

Visual art has always played an indispensable counterpoint to Ghostly International's musical releases. With this in mind, we've introduced an exciting new addition to The Ghostly Store's repertoire of custom apparel and hand-picked, can't-live-without-'em goods: Ghostly International Editions. Our new art section will feature an ever-growing selection of open-edition and limited-edition prints from Ghostly's renowned family of visual artists, along with work from talented new collaborators.

This spring, The Ghostly Store made its first foray into this field with signed, limited-edition prints by longtime contributor Michael Cina. These archival prints feature artwork from Ghostly releases such as The Sight Below's Glider, the state-of-the-label compilation Horizon Line / Ghostly By Night, and Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble's Terry Riley: In C.

Looking forward to the months (and years) ahead, Ghostly International Editions will release prints in two perennial formats: the PDL and the Art Print. When the cover art for a new (or back-catalogue) release lends itself to the print format, we'll offer an open-edition PDL (print + download) version. Larger than a CD but smaller than an LP, these 10" x 10" archival prints will be sold with a digital download of the album.

In conjunction with the PDL, Ghostly International Editions will be releasing limited-edition art prints featuring original artwork from collaborators including Michael Cina, Andy Gilmore, Will Calcutt, and many more.

Both the PDL and Art Print are printed using archival ink on photo rag paper and will include artist signed certificates of authenticity. We've carefully considered the pricing for both formats: PDL will be an affordable $25, while the larger, limited-edition art prints will generally cost less than your monthly cellphone bill.