The real news in music isn’t that vinyl sales are continuing to rise, it’s that dozens of indie music labels are going all out to create limited edition works of art in which to house that music. One of those companies – Alameda, Calif.’s Time Released Sound – admits right up front that it “is as much an art project as it is a musical outlet.” One of their latest releases will give you a good idea of why they say that, and why we love them for it.
The new album by Russian ambient musicians Daydreamer is called Camus after famed existentialist writer Albert Camus, and comes in a standard digipak version, but nuts to that. What we’re interested in is the $55 deluxe version. And by “interested” we mean “smitten with.”
This version includes:
“A multipage booklet that is hinged in the corner and fans open into an abstract mandala of sorts. The cover photo is printed on sheer Japanese tissue paper, and is hand adhered and shredded… The pages are printed on super heavyweight Moab paper, and are punched, collaged, sewn, stamped, doodled, and in general hand worked as usual. The back of the pages are a spray stenciled daydream of their own!”
And the finishing touch?
“Hanging from the front corner of each booklet is a little capped vial containing most of a Gauloises cigarette… the brand that Camus obsessively smoked until the end… feel free to light it up, listen, and start a daydream of your own!”
C’est magnifique!
