Giant Crow is a hamburg based alternative country and rock band and the successor of Raindance Kid. The ladder already appeared on a soundtrack CD released on cosirecords, so the small boutique label decided to release their first record under their new moniker.
The namesake, a giant crow, appears on different parts of the album artwork. It was important to deliver a unique artwork, that does not feel or look like a record by Wovenhand or other, very american folk-rooted US-records, so the design focused more on the rougher backgrounds of the band – Shoegaze, 90s Alternative Rock, Gothic influences. To achive such, the whole appearance is a bit rough, washy, and reduced to two colours (except for a sparkle of orange on the cover).
Coming with a lyric sheet, the semi-transparent vinyl comes in an inside-out printed sleeve, which enhances the haptic, country-like feel of the packaging.
13 artists covering 13 songs by the 13th Floor Elevators & their mastermind Roky Erickson. The briefing the label Gruselton gave me for "I Think of Demons": it's a tribute sampler that should look like a tribute. As usual for Gruselthon, it should come with gadgets. As the first vinyl LP I bought was the Elevator's debut, this was a very special project.
While the cover artwork works as a collage of the first two records by The 13th Floor Elevators – the sun from the "Easter Everywhere" cover finds it's way as well as the eyes of the debut, which also lends the color scheme. As Erickson somehow had a faible for pyramids, they also play a significant role in the artwork and as a gadget there is a build-your-own-pyramid craft sheet. The pyramid / egyptian / preastronautics theme continues on the inside of the gatefold CD cover and nicely fits the overall pulpy atmosphere of all Gruselthon releases so far.
In addition to the craft-sheet there is also a simple, yet terrifying sticker and a small portrait print featuring the sampler's credits included.
Dortmund based electronic musician WIFI GOLD, formerly known as local House-legend Mr. Fries, explores futuristic, internet-laced so called "quarterlife crisis jazz" aka glitchy, jazzy music. For his three singles "Sunbeam" (featuring Baltimore, USA based rapper Bailey Straughn), "Infinite Regress" (a collaboration with local musician Swimming TV), "Save Before Closing" and "Between the Raindrops" (feat. rapper Louis Jack) he wanted to keep a glitchy, internety vibe, so the covers were designed using cheap 3D models, stills from the accompanying music videos and shitty AI fills.
"Witch‘s Hand" is a collaborative split EP by Rhode Island, USA based folk musician Allysen Callery and Dortmund, Germany based stoner/doom metal band Mother Bear. The record is folk-horror centered, so the visual inspiration came from 1960s and 1970s occult movies. As Mother Bear's drummer I was happy to continue the design for my band at this first on-label release.
The releases‘ title is hand-drawn in the style of vintage movie posters and the theme "hand" continues throughtout the whole design. In addition to a gatefold-collage consisting of AI generated folk horror imagery and photos of the artists featuring various hand images, historic hand illustrations appear on the CD, the additional sticker and the lyric sheet.
The sampler “Empire of the Four Moons” is the musical interpretation of Enko Landmann's classic science fiction novel of the same name. Four bands, Heron & Crane, Verhülsdonk, Violet Nox and myself alias DISPENS have contributed electronic interpretations of motifs from the novel.
As the novel dates from the 1970s and is thematically close to Eastern European sci-fi, I chose illustrations and typography that are strongly reminiscent of GDR and USSR book covers.
The CD is accompanied by a sticker.
The debut album of my band Mother Bear is called “Zamonian Occultism”. Like many of the songs on the album, the title refers to the Zamonien novels written by Walter Moers (“13 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear”, “Ensel and Krete”, “Rumo” and so on), which is why we had the illustrator Sarah Gräfingholt draw us a cover picture featuring a character from the books.
Otherwise, the design is based on 70s horror films and thus the design typical of the stoner/doom metal scene - raw and with Art Nouveau touches. I drew a logo with three pipes (for us three musicians), which Sarah Gräfingholt incorporated into the cover, as well as a lettering of the band name, which is used on posters and the cassette side, among other things.
In the course of the release, stickers, posters and shirts were also created as merchandise.
Illustration: Sarah Gräfingholt
Portrait: Sebastian Beierle
Photography by Frank Bale (cover) & Eryk Pawlik (back cover)
For the limited edition vinyl EP "Oscillations" by Berlin based electronic musician KELMHO.
Design & Layout: Florian Grass / Kabine 7
Photography & Artwork: Caro Tolkemit
"Lost Children" brings together 12 home recordings by US-American folk musician Allysen Callery. As Allysen is actually more rooted in punk and goth rock than in folk and the recordings are all very raw and direct (sometimes with the jingling of dishes in the background), the entire artwork was designed by hand and not on the computer. With printed photos of Allysen's children, a typewriter, scissors and glue, the artwork was created in the style of 80s punk posters and fanzines. In addition to the CD and sleeve, a sticker was created, the motif of which was also used as a T-shirt print.
