Eye Magazine Think of your ears as eyes ECM records

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/think-of-your-ears-as-eyes

As ECM records book 'Sleeves of Desire' showed a brilliant insight into there practice and what influences them. I then decided to research further into other articles about their work. I found this Eye magazine piece speaking about Barbara Wojirsch and Dieter Rehm's design process.

The article firstly speaks about the characteristics of the designs using 'minimalist san serif typography fused with dream like black and white photography.' 

This aura of dreams and the subconscious is something I am particularly interested in within this project as it relates perfectly to the 'Dream 3' track I have chosen to look at.

This quote talks about the artist aspirations of the ECM records and how it is much less commercially driven and has a real focus on making something ornate and beautiful, its explains the work is 'generated by artistic conviction and personal vision.'

There then go on to discuss what Manfred Eichers designs are trying to express in relation to the music Eichers being a main producer and influence on the aesthetics of ECM , he speaks of it being a 'a reflection of my inner state of being' displayed 'often in a stark and sparse way; a landscape without people…. a landscape that is to do with the enigmatic' this again denotes this ambiguous dream like state the designer seems to be immersed in when designing. 

They then go on to speak of the designs influences and the personality of the work and how this inspires the viewer along with the music. This connection to the music and the art work is very evident within the designs. Manfred Eicher defines the personality in their work as 'something that speaks to you in the image, usually things that are enigmatic, or dry, or weird, dark or cold, images that go well with the music.' this speak about the subtlety of their images and how this can display an cryptic and obscure yet remain interesting. He also explain 'What I try to achieve is to get people who don't know the name of the musician to want to find out what the music is like, If this happens then I'm lucky'. This is ambition of creating something eye-catching and attractive relates to the secret 7 brief.