Liner Notes: Blinkar från Norr's Metaphors For Things
The Story Behind The Release on its 5-year anniversary
Liner notes are printed on thick card inside each of our vinyl releases and previously only seen by the owners of each record. See here for some background on the intention and format. I am publishing Liner Notes from existing and past releases here on Substack for all to enjoy.
Artist: Blinkar från Norr
Title: Metaphors For Things
Format: Blue and White Smole 2LP + digital
Cat: ASIPV022
Released: 2020
WI can’t believe it’s been 5-years since this one was released. Time is going way too fast. Funnily enough, I find myself back in the rainy PNW as I type, which played a key role in the artwork for this album. For today only, in celebration of this half-decade milestone, the album is Name Your Price over on Bandcamp.
Artwork:
Noah M / Keep Adding provided the artwork for this release, his 9th contribution to the label (at the time of writing). The brief to Noah was left relatively open for this record, with the music dictating a dark and mysterious approach and some rough guidance from the artist, Andrea. However, as with all ASIP releases, I try to avoid any overly dark connotations with the artwork, yet this proved harder than I had imagined.
We tried several textured approaches that were more abstract than where we eventually landed. Still, I felt like we needed something poignant and striking amongst the dense drones of the record, instead of feeling like a wash of sound and color. I dug around some old photos after remembering a specific hike in the Columbia Gorge (Oregon) called Angels Rest.
The hike was very foggy when I reached the highest point and left some striking imagery of branches stripped bare as it was the middle of winter. Ironically, this area was heavily burned in a wildfire a few years later, but at the time of these images, it was actually in full flourish - just leafless. I decided to send this imagery to Noah for new inspiration, and he layered photos and constructed the central 'flower' focal point. This was my first ‘proper' collaboration with Noah, where I provided substantial material for the final art.
Story:
Andrea’s demo came to ASIP through our web contact form on December 9th 2018. I had never heard of Andrea or his Blinkar från Norr project, but something about the name pulled me into listening to the demo. Just two tracks were included in the original demo - the title track ‘Metaphors for Things’ and 'Disconnect From Reality’. Based on those two, it was obvious I would love a full album from Andrea. The rest of the album seemed to come together quickly after two years of initial hard work from Andrea, with final touches and mixing provided over the coming months.
Insight:
A friend and fellow artist, SaffronKeira, helped with mixing, arrangement, and some additional production on this record. His music is also highly recommended, especially the album ‘Automatism’ on Denovali.
Also, try the Blinkar album at 33.3 rpm for an extended drone session.
Press:
This was one of our most efficient cuts (it feels so good to say that), with approvals on the first round of test pressings. I expected the cut to be hard because the music is rich and loud at times, with purposeful static and distortion. But it turned out great. Tests were approved in November 2019.
