Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra's latest release
Many of us grew up when physical, packaged music was the only option (even an album taped to cassette by a friend would probably have a paper cover). Thus poorly packaged albums could be sold for upwards of twenty dollars and retain their guaranteed audience. These days, that audience is harder to come by, and many labels have stepped up their act in the creation of high quality music packages.
Constellation Records (based in in Montréal, Quebec) has been making gorgeous, beautifully printed packages since 1997, with the release of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s F#A#oo.* Packaging, for Constellation, has seemingly always been as much a priority as the music contained inside. They exclusively use recycled papers and “old fashioned” print techniques like foil stamping, letterpress, limited-color offset, and silkscreening.
With vinyl sales (particularly deluxe, well-packaged vinyl sales) at their highest point in years, Constellation has recently stepped things up even further. For example, this winter they released Kollaps Tradixionales, the 6th full length record by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, and the deluxe package is a print wonderland contained in one 10” x 10” square. It contains the album as two 10” records, an art book with a foil embossed cover, two posters, a lyric booklet, and a CD copy of the album.
As of 2009, the only way to purchase MP3s directly from Constellation is bundled with a limited edition poster. The initial announcement of this deal explained that the label is just “too physical” to do anything less.
To quote from their manifesto, “Our aim is for each release to resonate as an integrated art object, where the sensibility of the music is reflected in and reinforced by the tactility of the package that contains it. Record-making as vocation and craft, as far removed from ‘product’ as we are able to get.”
The vivid gatefold sleeve of Silver Mt. Zion's 2002 vinyl release
The open book interior of Silver Mt. Zion's 2003 release
Peruse their website or ask about their releases at good local record stores. Mail order from Constellation includes a hand written note of thanks, and in my experience also some beautifully printed postcards and a label catalog. Consider obtaining some records and supporting these print revival pioneers.
A close up from Constellation's first major release
* The package for the vinyl of F#A#oo famously remains the same as it was for its first pressing of 500 copies. The sleeve is letterpress-embossed with no ink with a photo hand-glued onto it. The back shows the catalog number written by hand in silver ink. Inside, one finds a flattened penny from the train yard behind the place where the album was recorded, a show flyer, and a manilla envelope containing various beautiful and compelling inserts. They have continued producing this record in this same way for 13 years now!
