So far a new masterpiece of a very talented musician
Mikayel Abazyan has been released early in August this year. The album titled “Something More” comes as a continuation of “Something Deep Inside Me” released in 2016 which is basically a tribute album to Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator. This album is very special to me as it features some of my photographs and graphic illustrations as a result of 3-month collaboration with the musician. Just a couple of weeks ago I've got my first copies of the album and the time came to share the results and a short story on how this project happened.
Earlier this year, Mikayel called on his Facebook friends to help him out with a packaging of the album and come up with a series of photographs for every song in the album, and the challenge was surely accepted! At first the blindfold approach was proposed by the musician so that the contestants didn’t have a chance to listen to the actual tracks or get an access to the lyrics, hence we relied on a couple of sentences describing every song provided by the author. I had some ideas but under the office-work pressure I was struggling with the photographs as it’s not something I was able to do at a night time. So I prepared a set of graphic illustrations instead, sketching the photographic ideas in my mind. I sent them to Mikayel proposing to use graphic illustrations for the packaging based on sketches I'd prepared as an alternative to the photographs. Surprisingly he liked the idea giving a green light, and the work began. In about 2 months I prepared around 30 illustrations on our way to the final 9, every time finding Something More, Something Deep, Something New not only in the songs but in me as well.
Once I got the lyrics I changed most of the illustrations, but the crucial point was the time I got a chance to listen to the actual songs for the first time...it completely changed my approach to the album. Initially all the illustrations were made in 2-colour palette, but there was so strong white colour I heard in the songs. I felt that I missed the most important thing in all of these fears and mistakes, the irreversible past and destiny, and that was the promising and the white side of the life - future, which always answers all of your questions and offers you another chance, another opportunity to find Something More, Something Valuable in your life which will give you a strength to shape your own destiny, and “be what you are”...
I am very grateful to Mikayel for this unforgettable journey and the amazing opportunity to explore myself and find my Something More. I'd recommend to get a copy of the album for those who are open for a very different and deep kind of music and who are open to look deep inside of themselves and find their own Something More as I did.
The album is available in both in soft and hard copy formats on
Bandcamp:
here.
Both formats come with 28-page booklet featuring my graphic illustrations, and cover photographs, presented below. Enjoy!
