I’d like to highlight some beautiful work that has recently come across my desk. Anybody who spends any time on this site, or knows my work, knows that I have intense passion for recording and music packaging. In fact, I’ve collected music packaging, making the distinction that it’s not been about the music, for over a decade. Throughout my collecting I’ve come to some conclusions about what I like in music packaging. I like hand work, craft, individuality, nuance, subtlety, and an imperfection that alludes to the touch of human hands. In our current state of mass production automation, especially in printing, getting quality work that embodies these qualities is often difficult. This is especially true in the areas of homemade where haphazard crap is passed off as one-of-a-kind or unique. It’s true that something can be homemade and unique, but also missing the elements of craft, nuance and subtlety. Therefore, it’s a rare opportunity when I come across a package that seems to hit all of these criteria, let alone two.

In this instance, I’m talking about the releases of Evan Bartholomew and his Somnia Sound releases. These releases, Somnia Sound 001: Caverns of Time and Somnia Sound 002: Secret Entries Into Darkness, which I’ve taken to calling just 001 and 002 are a packaging examples par excellence! These packages embody nuance, subtlety, hand work, individuality, and slight enough imperfections to know that these originated from human hands.

Each of these releases is hand-sewn by Ray Massini, Evan’s partner. Each of these releases uses a fold-over style self-assembling package that’s bound by sealing wax. 001 utilized handmade paper from India and a beautiful relief print done with a rubber stamp, same for the text under the flap. Now the execution of the rubber stamp is nothing short of fantastic, but when this is combined with the excellent hand-sewn quality in the Indian paper and the wax sealed flap this is a real beauty. 002 is much like the 001, except that for this run then went with a French Paper mill that has been beautifully offset printed. Again, this one is hand-sewn, and bound with sealing wax.

These two packages are some of the best that I’ve seen in a long time. In my mind these releases herald the return of the handmade, if only as a neo-luddite response to automation and imperfection in every aspect of our daily lives. Ray and Evan collaborated on the package, with Ray focusing on the illustration and sewing and Evan focusing on typography and other aspects. Inspired by labels like 12k, Raster Norton, Fax which do limited copies, and quality packaging, they work to create organic packages that also offer an element of environmental sustainability.

I’m extremely pleased to have the opportunity to experience these release. Not only is the packaging great, fans of ambient music will truly enjoy the dense and organic CD that this excellent packaging houses. Visit them online at http://www.somniasound.com .