Cover artwork for "Rabbit Run"

Published by erstwhile records, New York
September 2003

Keith Rowe, Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler are three of the most prominent names in the European experimental world, each with their own distinct history and discography. All three are members of the all-star electronic orchestra M.I.M.E.O., and in late 2001, they began performing occasionally as a trio, eventually resulting in Rabbit Run.

Via a-musik: "Rowe, Lehn and Schmickler gathered together in June of 2002, in Schmickler's Piethopraxis studio in Cologne, for two days of recordings. The results were Rabbit Run, which is two records in one: a single 41 minute piece designed to be played linearly, and the same piece subdivided into 42 shorter tracks, designed to be played on random shuffle, creating a unique record with each play. The cover painting is by Rowe, in his instantly identifiable pop-art style, subsumed by Cologne designer Heike Sperling into a startlingly original design."

Cologne-based designer Manu Burghart supported me retouching my analog collages at her computer.

Analog collages

For brand eins magazine
2002

Contributed paper-collage-illustrations to four issues of the high profile economy magazine brand eins in 2002.

PDF files of each article with the illustrations here:

02/2002 Spurwechsel
03/2002 Rastlos, drahtlos, ratlos
04/2002 Die Angst vor dem Ruck
10/2002 Elefanten, Dilettanten und Porzellanläden

Cover artwork for "PARAM"

Published by a-musik, Cologne
December 2001

Am proud to have been hired to design the cover for the seminal recording PARAM which was composed and produced by Marcus Schmickler. Also designed the deleuxe limited edition gatefold vinyl cover. Marcus first collection of recordings for chamber ensembles with electronics.

Via a-musik: ""The new release on Cologne based label a-musik contains compositions by Marcus Schmickler that were performed and recorded over the last four years with many various musicians and ensembles. These recordings document Schmickler's interest in a confrontation with modern classical composers, they are a return of 'the living dead.' According to Schmickler, innovations are only possible by including the old. Schmickler has been known also for his different approaches with Pluramon, M.I.M.E.O., his collaborations with Thomas Brinkmann or the improviser Thomas Lehn."

Cover artworks on exhibition

Love my Computer
February-March 2001

Presentation of my CD and vinyl cover artworks for electronic music at the group exhibition Love my computer a qubo gas curated exhibition of music graphics at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Tourcoing, France.

Analog collages

For brand eins magazine
2001

Contributed analog collages to four issues of the high profile economy print magazine brand eins in 2001.

PDF file of each article with the illustrations here:

07/2001 Das Kreditkartenhaus
08/2001 Sterne lügen nicht
09/2001 Sicherheits-Risiko
10/2001 Das Gute Morgen

Cover artwork for "BART"

Published by erstwhile records, New York
2000

Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler recorded Bart over the course of two long studio sessions. A brilliant amalgam of the two musicians' strengths, Bart utilizes both improvisation and studio postproduction techniques to create a lasting work, combining the feel of a classic INA-GRM record with the raw, crackling energy of a free improv session.

And, for the cover artwork I used very old sheets of Letraset.

Cover artwork for "Bit Sand Riders"

Published by Mille Plateaux, Frankfurt
September 2000

Pluramon's Bit Sand Riders is a remix album. Noted artists including Mogwai, High Llamas, Matmos, Merzbow, Lee Renaldo contributed to this successful recording.

Via Forced Exposure: "The heterogeneous mixture of remixers and styles here is not accidental. By selecting remixers and their way of working (pluralistic), the individual components which are essential for the monistic Pluramon sound are highlighted clearly. There's the fat, dark rock of the Scottish band Mogwai, but also an airy track from Sensorama: working with guitar sounds & processing the sounds of the laptop master Hecker (Mego); or the melodic approach of the British High Llamas. As a band, Pluramon moves between electronic and guitar instrumentation and not least because of this is regarded as one of the most interesting acts internationally. Today, even the more obscure Lo-Fi bands work with digital equipment, i.e. with 'electronics'. Many of the discourses concerning this topic and the points which emerged from it have long been their focus. Unlike the first Pluramon album from the year 1996, when hard disc recording made the search for references to one's medium urgent, today music can be refined with the entire range of technical equipment in the digital domain. Therefore the latest Pluramon release Bit Sand Riders is a remix album. The bands who have been invited for the remix challenge are: The striking Sensorama of L'age d'Or as well as London's High Llamas; Mogwai, "the best guitar band 99" (Viva 2); F.X. Randomiz, the hyperactive electronic freak and M. Schmickler's label colleague; Hecker, processing sound in Mego style; Matmos, who is known for playful drum & bass from San Francisco on Matador; electro mastermind Atom Heart (Rather Interesting); the New Yorker Lee Ranaldo, the guitarist from Sonic Youth; SND, the minimal techno heroes from Sheffield; the noise evangelist Merzbow from Tokyo; and a remix from Pluramon themselves, on the vinyl version, there is an additional mix of Cristian Vogel which has already been released on 12"."

Cover design for "Reservoir"

Published by Mille Plateaux, Frankfurt
March 2000

Pluramon's remix EP Reservoir feature remixes by Techno heroes Christian Vogel and Thomas Brinkmann.

Cover artwork for "Render Bandits"

Published by Mille Plateaux, Frankfurt
May 1998

Render Bandits is Pluramon's second album. I have been buying old school and medical books in weird book stores in the East of Germany. Used them to do these collages.

"Like its predecessor, Pickup Canyon, Pluramon's second effort seems quite focused on getting only just close enough to any one genre to suggest an affiliation before quickly retreating into a haze of other stimuli. Render Bandits turns that haze into a dust storm at points, with a sometimes daunting buzz of electronics and blasted acoustic treatments nearly (that is to say, not quite) obliterating the music's sturdy rhythmic foundation. A much fuller-bodied recording is the result, with tracks such as Tel Bell, Syth, and Hintergrund matching the very best of far more widely lauded post-rockers such as Tortoise." –Sean Cooper

Cover artwork for "SATOR ROTAS"

Published by a-musik, Cologne
February 1998

Marcus Schmickler hired me for the artwork of his 1998 SATOR ROTAS release. Via Wikipedia: "The Sator Square (or Rotas Square) is a word square containing a five-word Latin palindrome. In particular, this is a square 2D palindrome, which is when a square text admits four symmetries: identity, two diagonal reflections, and 180 degree rotation. As can be seen, the text may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, or right-to-left; and it may be rotated 180 degrees and still be read in all those ways. The Sator Square is the earliest dateable 2D palindrome."

Via a-musik: "Marcus Schmickler aka Wabi Sabi aka Pluramon expands his electronic experimentations, creating a surreal, open music that enraptures the listener with raging soundwaves and maximum density. Expect the unexpected from the new school of improvised music: hybrid wooshings, subsequenced crackles, microharmonical adventures. Strange, tense, cool and rich of superb pranks. "

The piece was awarded by the annual Ars Electronica festival.