Touch Music (2008)

Given the mountain image from yesterday's post, I figured I'd drop in another landscape. This time from a Fennesz album. The photograph is by Jon Wozencroft, a graphic designer who founded Touch, of which the Touch Music label is part of. The label is a hazy, desolate affair, but I enjoy the dirt in the foreground and the overall gray palette. The horizontal lines grow slightly as they move off to the right, offering a contrast to the wave shapes. Are those warehouses or factories off in the distance? The album is called Black Sea and perhaps this is a beach, but it's not immediately clear. I also like how the small ring around the spindle hole looks like an imprint here. More and more I'm becoming a fan of labels with only images and no text.

If you've never listened to Fennesz you really should. He's a guitar player, but it took me a couple years to come to that full realization. So much of his work incorporates a blissful electronic hiss and fuzz that grows and fades in and out of the background. There's the occasional full on guitar line that's never inconsequential, but instead flows perfectly in and out of the haze. Much like this label what with its roads or paths that compliment the seemingly more natural textures. Quite lovely.