Adam Sutherland - Squall - Album Cover Art

Me and Sutherland go back a long way. Both Invernesians who grew up playing music together, ended up in the same band together for 6 years and through great highs and massive lows we've always remained solid friends. Sutherland is a force of nature, his fiddle playing is second to none in my eyes, he is known predominantly for Traditional music and he has written a fair few classics over the years. However I see his strength in his ability to interpret and process pretty much any sound, whether it be the shreek of a disgruntled albatros or the light babbling of a highland burn. His fiddle playing is an extension of his creative mind, his personality and this to my mind should be the foundation of any great musician. There are few musicians who are so accomplished at just making noise, not music per say but ambient, harmonically rich and expressive tones, ranging from rich harmonious melody to raging, obstinant, dissonance.  Sutherland has the ability to make the fiddle sing, moan, cry or sound just plain obnoxious. To me he is an artist who simply has more colours on his palette than most others. I've had the benefit of making music with the man for many years and his approach is not only entertaining but genuinely infectious and unique. Much like many great musicians he listens to everything, is interested in music and sound out with the genre for which he is associated and uses this vast knowledge to create music which is bold,  full of character and ultimately timeless.So there you go. I'm a big fan and I've thoroughly enjoyed being apart of his first solo record. When he told me of his plan, to record live with bass, drums and guitar together with an audience I could not have been more on board. Not least because every member of the band he had chosen were strong individuals with unique styles all of their own. Recording live these days is something that happens very rarely, especially in Folk music. Given modern Folk musics pseudo-puritanical outlook on tradition and authenticity, it seems at odds that so many strive for technical perfection and comp the life out of things in pro tools. This point more over anything else is what give this album it's rich flavour. It is full of great little moments, happy accidents, subtle fluctuations in timing, tuning and ensemble that bring the tunes to life. The devil is always in the detail and there is no way to engineer genuine, in the moment interplay between band members and indeed their audience.It's been quite a journey to get this far for everyone involved, I was present during most of the recording process and we had a great pile of craic up at the ceilidh place in Ullapool. Sutherland chose somewhere to do this that he knew would be accommodating, comfortable and where everyone concerned could be completely at ease. For this the ceilidh place couldn't be better the Urquhart's have suffered our musical chaos for decades now and they certainly know how to make everything go with a certain west highland panache. I filmed and photographed the whole process and there is a making of video in the works as we speak - but more on that later.Now to get to the point. The album cover art. Sutherland chose the title Squall for many reasons, firstly because it typifies Scotland. The ever changeable weather, the ferocity and grandeur of our country is awesome and has a direct affect on us day in day out. Secondly he holds the firm belief that music should be full of contrast, light and shade, up and downs. So Squall fitted perfectly and t0 this end we set about creating the cover. Last summer I took a wee holiday with my kids and my folks to Gairloch sands, the weather was fantastic and pretty much the only good week the whole summer. However by the end of the week the weather turned and it could definitely be described as squally, one afternoon a huge thunder storm rolled in over the hills and I ran up the beech to get it in the camera as is my way. One of these photos formed the basis of the cover. Shot from the head of the sands the photo takes in the sheets of rain cascading across the hills of wester Ross, this in itself would have made an alright cover but in my usual understated style I thought it would be prudent to add a wee meteorite shower and sci-fi lighting effects. So that's exactly what I did. Sutherland loved it and I set about persuading him on spending lots of money on getting silver block foiling on the cover to set it off with a bit of thwack. Graciously he agreed to my artistic vision and I express my great gratitude in him trusting me to do this. The inner pages included a 3 page spread of the same scene on the cover but after the squall had passed. We then decided that only hand writing the liner notes would suffice, so Sutherland wrote out everything, I then scanned it in and traced it all by by hand using the wacom tablet. This made typesetting and correction a bit more of challenge than usual but the human touch exemplified by this gives the whole thing a unique character that reflects Sutherlands personality and hopefully generates a better connection with listener who cares enough to take the time to read it all. The inside pages consisted of the mug shots of the studio audience and a few photos of the band.I'm dead chuffed with how the whole package has turned out. It looks sweet, sounds great, the block foiling and hand written notes really make a difference in marking this as a special release. My job is far from done at this juncture as I still have a film to edit but my hope is that Sutherland will make a positive impact on the Folk scene with this record. That he is recognised for his talent, flamboyancy and his ability to gel and communicate with other musicians so effectively. His humble and genuine desire to 'Play music for people. Live and in the moment' to me is what marks this album out, not only is it a nicely packaged well produced album, but as a statement on how modern music is made and I one for one applaude the man. VIVE LA STARCH!You can get more info on the whole effort on the website, which I also created...http://adamsutherland.co.uk