something is lurking...

...above the canopy, within the fog and below the forest floor:

I have been currently been involved in an INCREDIBLE project being curated by Mr. Andrew Crawshaw @Broken Press. Expect updates on the progress of this project sooner than later...


If Boy Sets Fire were into black metal in their prime = Recently completed logo for NYC hardcore band the Heist. They asked for something resembling scratches on a filthy city wall with a decaying skyline above their name... fortunately, I had a filthy and decaying Strathmore sketch pad handy. Process: pen/ink, cell phone camera (no shit) and Illustrator. Ask them about the movie Goodfellas.

UPDATE: 130408 // new logo design project

(above: an enthusiastic fan and new logo for maniacs alike: WHORELORD from Long Island, New York) ...more artwork/related projects to be updated on here shortly, stay tuned!

Thanks,

-Kevin

240308 // ASSEMBLY + SCREENPRINTING SESSIONS

THEY'RE HEEEEEERE... well, kind of.

Another day, according to the true labor of love; I just finished the screen-printing/drying process literally minutes ago. Once these are sealed and packaged for shipment – half the edition (x25) will be on their way to Iceland this time tomorrow. I also spent the majority of the morning duplicating the remainder of the discs and hand-folding, numbering and packaging the sleeves into their individual pouches.

MIDWINTER SESSIONS '08:

PROCESS: recorded, edited and arranged during the Winter Solstice of 2008. CONTENT: consists of four tracks // OVER 60 minutes of dark-ambient dronescapes, spectral riffing and eerie field-recordings; captured and composed by Jóhannes Gunnar Þorsteinsson and myself. Pressed in an edition of 50 hand-assemble pieces. DETAILS: Printed on silver cardstock, black-bottom CD's screen-printed w/silver inks by yours truly and packaged in resealable poly-sleeves. Pricing info: $9 (shipping included), if you're interested - please contact: kevin@viraloptic.com or johannesgunnar@gmail.com
Thanks for reading,

-Kevin

FERMENTÆ Vs. HUSK RECORDS

Exclusive track on Husk Records OUT NOW:
I nearly forgot about this one - thanks to Darea for bringing it to my attention!!

"The Static Hymnal V/A 6X C-6O Box Set.We are beyond excited to bring you this project that has been 2 years in the making from 3 labels (Husk/Factotum/Hung Like a Horse) features 42 artists,on 6 c-60's.6 cassettes of sonic depression and terror fueled electronics.Features some of the best Death Industrial,Drone,Experimental,Noise from around the world.Includes tracks from Wilt/Envenomist/Bernard Mothstal/Red Needled Sea/Jason Schuler/Teeth Collection/Altar of Flies/Family Battle Snake/Ordo Lacrina Christi/Pillars of Heaven/Kam Kassah/Altars/Sewer Goddess/Fat Legs/Josh Lay/Wether/Camisole/Natatraja/Gnarly Sheen/The Fortieth Day/Hallowed Butchery/Ettrick/Riververb/Blue Sabbath Black Cheer/Fermentæ/One Lifeless Eye/Tree Creature/Stemcell Research Project/Ben Allen/Breath of Chaos/Steel Hook Prostheses/Scard/Dzakar/Hauntings/Demonologists/Toxicum Aestus/Scythe Death/M. Kourie/Black Moss/Metek/Ryan Unks/Gnaw Their Tongues.Full color artwork.Edition of 100 copies.$40 ppd in the U.S."

FERMENTÆ // ZIZ - split release update

coming soon.

typeset in silian braille

I have been cleaning out my storage HD's and found these old illustrations I did back in the school days 2002-2005. (ABOVE) We had to recreate a mechanical device, I chose a chainsaw – this one is for all you sophisticated gents and ladies. (BELOW) this was a charcoal study I completed back in city college - it was used later on in art school for a Morandi dedication poster about simplicity in life and our work...
MORE REAL ARTWORK updates soon...

KAILEE // custom apparel design

Front and back prints on classy white button-up dress shirts.
Visually - they wanted something along the lines of BBQ'd sushi.

...steak and lobster all the way folks – I will have the soup and salad, thanks...

HAARE logo // new release

It looks like Haare is at it again with a new tape: 'Nightmare Sutra' is ALREADY SOLD OUT on the KULT OF NIHILOW label. Haare logo by me and an insane psychedelic insert/design by Ilkka himself, pictured at the very top.

HI(BIAS)GHLY RECOMMENDED

This is an AMAZING experience from Pau Torres, start to finish!!
Lngtché "Leng Hex" 10€ (shipping included) to order CONTACT HERE

"Musique Concrete done in the evilest way possible, with a skillfully arranged assortment of sounds; flies circling a corpse, drone metal from the distance, disturbed breath, minimal tones, field recordings,and intense cut ups. This is the entire unreleased efforts from this project out of Spain, only one other CDr has been released. Two color silkscreen covers, metallic black and silver on black textured paper,in a black vinyl album. Edition of 50 copies on hi bias chrome tapes."

Complete track list:
Cassette One:

Side A
I-From the Ocean
II-Fleur du Mal
III-Ange de Nuit
IV-Le someil Dendymion
V-L Enfer

Side B
VI-Smarra
VII-De Rerum Natura
VIII-Black Anthology
IX-Vulgus Profanum
X-Mort de l Auteur

Cassette Two:
Side C
XI-Etude Electrique
XII-Exit/Black
XIII-Portrait dún oiseaux
XIV-Woods

Side C
XV-Abominable Opera Sinistre
XVI-Black Holograms
XVII-Red Water
XVIII-Enovol

牛

(above) getting back to the brush and pen - HAIL the VORTEX QUAIL

2009 Year of the Ox (you stubborn bastards...)

(above) I was bored and made my own desktop wallpaper. Feel free to share it, but cred. it ...

No apologies for the lack of updates - this post is reassurance that everything is going GREAT. twothousand&nine is going to be a strong and productive one indeed!


Music:

It has been a mad-scramble – my tracks for the FERMENTÆ / ZIZ split release will be completed this week and will be available around mid to late Feb. Final-sessions for the long-awaited (and still untitled) companion to 'Diaspora' will be taking place immediately after.
Etude recording sessions are exclusive to early mornings of my best or worst collective mind-states. I have already sent Pau some previews and we are still moving forward!

More exciting news on the horizon, includes a new live AND studio collaborative entity with comrade: A. Douglas, as an active composer of complex, beautiful and dense layers of sound for applications in the film medium; it is a great honor to be working with him!

Artwork/Design:

At the moment, I have been working on logos and artwork for melodically crushing band from Oklahoma City: KOMAROV, check them out! Their debut record is on the way and all I can say right now is that the final results will yield to be absolutely incredible.
Also, speaking of incredible: I have recently been given the the opportunity to work together with longtime, fantastically eclectic Brazilian label Essence Music on the artwork and layout for the re-release of the 'Silence of Noise' album by Aidan Baker. Please check them both out as well. Very exciting indeed.

There will be more posts on additional projects that I will be working on as more news develops. I will try keep you all in the loop in regards to what I basically do here: all day and all night. More sooner than later folks Please, keep checking back.


best wishes to you earthy bunch - thanks for reading.

R.I.P. WEARETHEROBOTS

shocking...

midweek

I just wrapped up a series of skateboard deck designs that I had been working on up until tonight...

BOTH of the swirly vector graphics on the left-hand side are originally from a canvas print I created for a non-profit a while ago; it was sold at an auction to fund an arts/music program at a local elementary school... see? I am not THAT rotten

...madness as usual

151208: the Limbs have landed

Copies of OFC - 'Dismantling Her Six Arms' arrived this week, along some shirts they had printed. I designed their logo and did the artwork for this one... everything turned out effing GREAT!!!

I have been amassing material for various FERMENTÆ/solo releases at a ridiculous rate here – there will be no letting up. I have to say that this primitive process of capturing field-recordings via hand-held cassette recorder and then transferring them to my digital 8-track is probably laughable, but I am pleased with the results - analog > digital > mess... also this whole day (12/21) has been specifically dedicated to working on an effort w/ Icelandic composer Jóhannes G. Þorsteins - ask him about sheep

Also, I recently have been in correspondence with Bryan Walker, performing member of Canadian acts: ORCA, GARDENIA and ORCINUS... another like-minded artist who is definitely worth checking out

...more sooner than later

171108_another BUSY week

Recording and editing sessions continue for the FERMENTÆ full-length. Pictured above the basic setup I am using to capture acoustic guitar vibrations via. contact mic and routing it through a mixer. Also, I have been transferring field-recordings off cassettes like crazy: the sounds of ocean side ruins, seaside-caves and rain penetrating the canopy in coastal forests.

The foundation of the second part to Diaspora was mixed down this morning/afternoon 112008. Initially intended to be a 22m track - there may be two tracks on the 3"CDr follow-up. To be realistic and resourceful: the release will be a free download OR can also be purchased as a pressed/assembled on demand basis for those who actually want something tangible to complete the Diaspora x2 3"CDr set. There will be a special bonus for the people who buy a physical copy.

NOTE: there is a collaborative OR split effort in the near future, but more on that soon...

AWESOME portrait of C. Walton of TENHORNEDBEAST /Endvra

COMRADE CRAWSHAW - SPECIAL (all caps) THANKS to Andy @BROKEN PRESS in Seattle, WA for these exceptionally designed & screen-printed gifts! NOTE: Justin Bartlett did the wicked killustration for the Watain poster pictured at the top right.

071108

Föstudagur, 7. nóvember @Húsið, Rósenborg. Skólastíg 2

"​Shatt​ering​ the const​ructs​ of reali​ty via volum​e." poster design for a gig in Iceland. Performances by: ZIZ, Dauði​ og Djöfu​ll, G-​Spot and Earen​del

FERMENTÆ Interview: HAMMER SMASHED JAZZ

I did a brief interview for a pretty killer music blog named Hammer Smashed Sound for FERMENTÆ. Beau rules and you can visit/read it at the link below:
HSS interview >> click to read
...listen to Paysage D'Hiver

SIBERIA - 'In Exile' LP

A 12" jacket that I completed for SIBERIA from Portland, OR in the winter of '07. Oliver (guitarist/screaming bloody murder) gave me these words to build the visuals upon: solitude, isolation, hopelessness, frigid death and internal struggle ... The general theme of the layout as we both discussed, draws inspiration from the novel: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and I had a fixation on Norwegian illustrator Theodor Kittelsen at the time as well.

Additionally: the actual records had been pressed and sitting in boxes in the basement of drummer RC's moms house, waiting to be released proper. It wasn't until my chance email to Oliver that we actually talked about getting this project moving forward and completed. The final steps all took place in PDX - which included the sleeves being screen-printed by a couple named Allison and Marcello and inserts/assembley assumedly by the band.

I believe this vinyl only release is limited to an edition of 200 or 500 copies (I can't remember) ALL on white wax and you can get a copy by contacting them directly or catching them during one of the rare live performances:
http://www.myspace.com/siberiantundra

Till next time,

-k

PS. I heard from OFC that the proofs for 'Dismantling Her Six Arms' has been approved and they should be going into production as we speak. More on that soon...

DEAD VIOLETS = mental avalanche

Friend, colleague and mutual fan of peanut butter m&m's Thomas Ekelund's new project with other members:

Dead Violets is a noise behemoth, a drone core juggernaught, an ominous transatlantic stormcloud, a black as bile, three headed beast. Dead Violets is Jeffrey Surak (Violet, Critikal, et cetera), Bethany Moore and Thomas Ekelund (Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Teeth, et cetera).

you can check out some of their material here: http://deadviolets.org/

ALSO: please check out Mr. Ekelunds visual output(s) here: http://www.nullvoid.net/ and here: http://www.whenskiesaregrey.se/

FERMENTÆ - 'Diaspora' + 'Gatherings 06/07' releases

An ambitious 8-panel mini-LP jacket for a 3" CDr release titled 'Diaspora' - the follow-up disc to the first 19m45s onslaught is forthcoming, but more on that later. Both pictured releases were hand assembled and sold, traded, given away in realistic editions to an already 'flooded market' of post black metal Ulver worship style acts...

A tri-fold style sleeve, packaged in a custom sized poly-bag with a foam hub in the center panel to adhere the CDr. The visuals consisted of hand-drawn, photographic and digital elements. Only a handful of these were made to be given to friends or traded to other bands and they're all gone.

la poussière flottante

Here is an AWESOME stop motion short crafted, arranged and shot entirely by the endlessly talented M. Osborne. I was asked to contribute an audio track to it:

Violet Spires

This was some line-work I hand drew, scanned and eventually mangled digitally a couple months ago. Not really always aware of what I am doing, especially when it is personal work, practicing my skill or being bored... I had subconsciously arranged one of the mirrored halves with no clue where I was taking it, and this was the result:

OFC - final logo + album art/ layout

This should be going to print by the end of the week.
Many thanks to Justin Bartlett for the Kali silhouette illustration on the disc.

'Divinorum' - Bones of Seabirds album artwork

The visuals I designed for Ryan's new release on the French experimental label: Basses Frequences, run by Jerome Moncada (who were kind enough to stock copies of my release: 'Diaspora' -FERMENTÆ). Their unique releases are packaged in square tins and are labeled with a sticker on the front and inside the lid.

The album was released earlier this week, so check it out if you're looking to immerse yourselves in walls of sound here: http://www.myownsalvation.com/

Here is the link to Ryan's (BoS) site: http://bonesofseabirds.com/blog/




Thanks for reading


-Kevin