This record is part of state51 Atelier Editions, which are high-craft, handmade, short-run music products with a focus on expressing new ideas in music product design. Each edition is made of 51 copies, with the 51st made to exceptionally high standards of creativity and craft.

“We make to pre-order, minimising environmental impact by avoiding large-scale industrialised processes, instead preferring to use a small team of artisans employing hand-craft techniques,” says The state51 Conspiracy.

“We wanted to build a beautifully packaged version of an album of experimental chamber music, which drew inspiration from the Norman church the sessions were recorded in. We focused on materials and tactile elements to communicate the emotional content of the music. The records were individually cut on a lathe, with an image of the church door engraved in the centre: a portal into another world. We printed the packaging so that this door lay on top of a printed door. We wanted to give the sense of a palimpsest.

“Copies 1-50 come in handmade sleeves. Each was screenprinted on site with images of bones and church features on beautifully textured high-density backboard screenprinted in black ink, with a feel like mottled stone. A vellum-style outer was screenprinted with white ink.

“The 51st comes inside hand-engraved, bespoke plaster casing. The record has been cast in bone white plaster, inspired by the stone-like church windows and arches of St Olave’s Priory  in Great Yarmouth, where the album was recorded. The case is shaped like a two-part plaster mould, as if the record has been cast inside. The case acts as both protector and creator of the record.”

Credits:
Company: The state51 Conspiracy
Art Direction: Louise Mason
Product Design & Fabrication: Tilly de Verteuil, Nathan Sherwood
Print Production: Alba Urquia
Music: Laura Cannell, Lori Goldston
Lathe Cutting and Engraving: Michael Lawrence, Bladud Flies!