silkscreen print – Enfant Terrible

Printed TWINS

Yesterday was quite a sad day… as for the last time I was at Kapitaal in Utrecht for printing some ET artwork… hopefully they will find a new place soon so our collaboration can continue…

What had to be done yesterday was the sleeve for the TWINS “Rather Not” record… the sleeve has a classic new wave sort of lay-out and features some great photography by Anouk van der Wegen. The sleeves are silkscreen printed.

This record comes in two editions… as in that the sleeve has been designed in two variations featuring two different photos… one proved harder to print as the other strange enough… but in the end both look great I think…

This record is open for pre-order now and ready for shipping in about 2-3 weeks from now…

Assembly line

Always when new records arrive from the pressing plant it takes a few days before I can start to ship records to private orders and shops. This because the records have to be assembled… sometimes it involves more work (more parts) as other times…

Right now I have quite some work to do… the Sololust and Staatseinde sleeves need to be folded… and I do this by hand… one sleeve at the time… after that I need to put them in a plastic outer sleeve and put the vinyl record also in this plastic sleeve.

The Europ Europ is another story… I made 200 small stickers by hand… one for each sleeve… so I also need to put the stickers on the sleeves… also a black inlay card I cut in the right size has to be put in the sleeve and after that the vinyl record and the silk screen printed inlay card also have to put in the plastic outer sleeve… so lots of parts have to be added before I have one ready to send out into the world…

Still… in the end the more work involved in a record the more satisfaction it gives me when I see the end result…

So… I am busy right now to get all records ready so I can start shipping soon…

Printing time (again)

Yesterday was printing time again at Kapitaal in Utrecht… this time it was the insert / artwork for the upcoming Europ Europ 7 inch… with the help (as always) of the printing chief of Kapitaal super nice double sided printed inlay cards were realised… we printed them with silk screen printing technique and did a little experiment with two colours of ink so all inlay cards came out different…

All I need to do now is cut them… but that is for the printed parts only as a few small other things still need to be finalised for the Europ Europ records… and still the artwork for the Sololust and the Staatseinde records need to be printed… so more work is waiting… but I expect all to be ready in time for the release date late November…

Lazy sundays?

Since January our Radio Resistencia show is recorded in Utrecht at Kapitaal and it also has become a free mini event… it is an afternoon radio session with dj’ed music and almost always a live performance… there are cheap drinks and a relax setting… perfect for a lazy sunday afternoon…

Last sunday Good Cop / Naughty Cop did their performance with bicycle, guitar and electronics… not easy listening but very interesting to listen to and watch… the photo above was taken by Hans D. during the performance…

Next mini event is on sunday 19th of April with Diamantener Oberhof from Germany… their debut was released of course on Vrystaete recently and the artwork was printed at Kapitaal… so this will be sort of delayed release party…

Also during these sessions I often print some artwork for upcoming releases… last sunday I printed (silk screen printing) the artwork for the ultra limited edition of the Neugeborene Nachtmusik LP… which is not for sale… sorry… but I promise that the regular version is equally nice when it comes to artwork and it is also still very limited…

This LP is expected soon… here is (another) full track preview…

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/197416572″]

Vrystaete @ Kapitaal

Yesterday during the Radio Resistencia session at Kapitaal Utrecht I started with printing the artwork for the Brunnen and Diamantener Oberhof releases coming soon on Vrystaete… well actually only the Brunnen as this is was so much work… but very nice to do…

The Brunnen art print which comes with the record is a linocut made by Dutch visual artist (and musician) Hans de Wolf (he helped out printing as well). I had never printed a linocut before… first all was measured and set up so the printed piece is always on the same part of the paper… then you need to set the pressure on the printing press depending on how you want the print to come out… darker (more pressure) or lighter (less pressure)…

Then the ink needs to be warmed up to make it fluid… then for every print you need to put ink on the linocut and put it in the right spot of the printing press… then lay a piece of paper on it gently so it does not get messy… then a sort of small carpet / rubber mat goes on top of this and then you gently turn the wheel of the printing press so the linocut and paper are going underneath the press… if all goes well and you are able to get the mat and paper of the linocut what out messing up you have a super nice print… a print which needs to dry for about three days… and this 150 times in this case…

But… it is super nice to do this… it is meditative in a way… you only focus on the printing and all the rest fades into the background… and of course it is so much nicer to print the artwork for the records you release yourself instead of getting a sleeve from the pressing plant…

So… next are the Diamantener Oberhof prints… a three colour silkscreen print…

(Action photos by Hans D.)