FIELDWORK :: TAKE FIVE Part II

March 1, 2010

Fieldwork Take 5
A few months ago I wrote a piece about some of my favorite album covers and the artists behind them. I enjoyed it so much that I've decided to do it again. This month I've taken artwork from The Radio Dept., Slareffenland, Kings of Convenience, Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear. You can catch part one here.

Lesser Matters by The Radio Dept.
Lesser Matters
Elin Almered created the beautiful painting that sits on the front cover of The Radio Dept.'s debut album. Elin was one of the founding members of the band back in 1995 but only stayed with them until 2003. I'd love to see more of her work but unfortunately this painting is the only thing I can find. She currently records under the the name Little Death.

Sunshine EP slaraffenland
Label
The Sunshine EP by Slaraffenland is another case of a band member providing the artwork for their music. Slaraffenland even went one further with Sunshine being hand-folded by the band themselves. They're beautifully designed by Niklas Antonson of the band and I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the CD at their gig last month, while my girlfriend now sports a rather fantastic t-shirt featuring Niklas' design.

Kings of convenience Declaration of Dependance
Label
Two photographers have contributed work to the latest Kings of Convenience album: Åse Holte and Danielle Rubi. I've decided to blog about them in the blog below (click here to read about Åse and here for Danielle). Danielle provided the wonderful image of Mexico fom the cover while Åse has taken some realy nice shots of Norway inside the sleeve.

Fleet Foxes ST
Label
It seems so fitting that Fleet Foxes would turn to a 16th Century Netherlandish Renaissance painter to provide the artwork for their debut album. Their baroque pop folk sound feels like something from another time and the painting by Pieter Brugel the Elder pushes that on. The painting is called Netherlandish Proverbs and depicts about 100 literal renditions of Flemish proverbs from the day. Frontman Robin Pecknold told Mojo back in August how the artwork ended up on the albums cover:
We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do, and my brother had been working out some stuff, when I saw that Bruegel painting in a book my girlfriend had. I liked that it had a really intriguing meaning, like there's a story to each little scene. Which I just felt fitting for that record- dense but unified, not a collage or anything. And I liked its Where's Waldo? quality, that it was something you could look at for a long time on a vinyl sleeve and find new little things. It was very easy to get the museum in Berlin that has it to say yes. They were super excited a band wanted to use it and put it in their newsletter.
If you're interested in either the original painting or Flemish proverbs Wikipedia have a terrific breakdown of the image showing a large collection of many of the idioms hidden in the picture.

Yellow House
Label
This is the second time I've chosen an album cover by Grizzly Bear after writing about Veckatimest in my previous Take 5 post. The photo for Yellow House was taken by Polish born and American based photographer Patryce Bak. I've blogged about some of her work here. The photos are of Yellow House, the house in which the album was recorded and for those interested it's Edward Droste's mom's house. I love how the album is full of Patryce's photos and each page of the sleeve is filled with a delicate collection of the empty rooms inside the house. The album is also really well designed by Ben Tousley. Here's a photo that shows off some of his terrific packaging.

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Got a personal favourite album cover? Why not share it in the comments?

Åse Holte

Åse Holte

Åse Holte

Åse Holte

I love these photos by Norwegian photographer Åse Holte. I also love how her first name "Å se" is Norwegian for "to see". How perfect!

I found her photographs by way of the latest album by Kings of Connivence but she has also done great work with the likes of The New Wine, UPOP.no and Mari Brunvoli.  Currently she is studying Digital Media at the rather fantastic sounding Hyper Island in the south of Sweden and from November she'll be available for internships.

Go check out her portfolio here.

Danielle Rubi

Danielle Rubi Photo
Kings of Convenience
Piano
Danielle Rubi is responsible for the beautiful photo of Kings of Convenience in Mexico that sits on the front of their latest album.  She seems to travel a lot and currently lives in Paris.  Her work has appeared in publications like Anthem, Dwell, Readymade and Nylon and she has also had exhibitions in Brazil, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the US. You can find out more on her blog and she'll also be relaunching her website in the next few weeks.

Patryce Bak (1976)

Grizzly Bear
Patryce Ba
Patryce Ba

Patryce Bak is a Polish born American based photographer who currently works in New York. Her photos are the ones that set the tone for Grizzly Bear's terrific 2006 album Yellow House. The majority of her photos hold a latent narrative and explore mundane interior spaces and landscapes.

She's put together a great portfolio which is well worth checking out here.

Rinko Kawauchi (1972)

Rinko Kawauchi - Melon
Untitled (from the series Utatane), 2001

Rinko Kawauchi - Cui Cui
Cui Cui (2005)

Rinko Kawauchi - Untitled
Untitled (from the series Utatane), 2001

I absolutely love the work of Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi. Hugh Campbell (Professor of Architecture, UCD) decided to share her work at the recent Pecha Kucha Night in Dublin a few weeks ago and ever since I've been addicted to it.  Her work aims at capturing the serene and poetic moments in everyday life.  I think she captures it perfectly and creates something really special; I wish I could share more of her work on the blog.  Head over to Google now to see more of her work.

Keith Walsh and A Year of Tees

A Year of Tees
Three Tshirts by Keith Walsh
Keith Walsh lives and breaths tshirts.  At last month's Pecha Kucha Night in the Sugar Club he was given 6 Minutes and 40 Seconds to convince us why he was the "Lord of Tshirts" and within 20 slides he had easily shown us that he warranted the title and much, much more. Walsh's obsession with the humble tee has gone so far that this year he is attempting to make a new tshirt everyday; head over to A Year of Tees to see how he's doing or follow him on twitter @yearoftees.


Here's a video from the night, head here to view more of the speakers.

For those who still want more you can head over to Turtlehead to see more of Keith's work.