Cormorant Remind Us of the Power of Album Artwork

Given the popularity of digital downloads, this generation of new music fans aren't as interested in an album's accompanying artwork, which is often as quintessential as the music itself for older music fans and collectors! A lot of effort and thought goes into linking music with artwork, which is a visual extension of the audio -- and is what ultimately allows music to permeate multiple senses. "We felt it essential that the artistic design for 'Metazoa' reflect the spirit of the music," Arthur von Nagel, vocalist and bassist for Cormorant, tells Noisecreep, regarding the album artwork, which was designed by artist Julie Dillon.

The band sent Dillon the music with lyrics and asked her to listen multiple times before she began developing her visual interpretations. "We didn't initially present any artistic concept to her, because we wanted the piece to develop organically," Von Nagel continues. "She came to us with a series of beautiful abstractions, consisting of broad colors and shapes, perfectly capturing the hints of psychedelia in our music. From the basic background of a blue and yellow spiral, Julie began populating the picture with imagery culled from our songs. I spot scenes, moods and creatures from tracks. She even managed to sneak in a couple cormorants fishing."

Dillon herself offered some illumination on the process, telling Noisecreep, "Distilling an entire album into a single image can be a challenge. At first we weren't sure exactly what the cover image should be or what it should include. I started with several abstracted color compositions, then pulled more concrete elements out of the abstractions as we started narrowing the concept down."

Band and artist worked side-by-side on the process, too; with a lot of back and forth, as they tried out new ideas and discarded others in order to achieve the end result. "Thankfully, I do all my painting digitally, which gives me the flexibility to edit and rearrange things as needed," Dillon says. Von Nagel couldn't be happier with the artwork, saying it reminds him of the intimacy of Bruegel or Bosch paintings. "Every time I revisit the design, I discover some subtle new detail," he admits.

Makes you rethink the value of album artwork, doesn't it?