Behind The Artworks: Moonlow - Who Are You? (2020)

Once I had decided on the band name “Moonlow” and the album title Who Are You? I thought about the visual image I wanted to convey with the album art. I knew that I wanted something stark and iconic, and David Tibet’s work for Current 93 came to mind as an initial reference point. I also knew that Irrwisch (Alexander Trinkl) would be able to do a brilliant job. I had already worked with Irrwisch on previous projects so I knew that he had an understanding of this sort of music and that we worked well together. As we didn’t have a long time to get the art completed I asked Alex if he would be OK to follow the lead of my basic ideas, which he was.

During the period spent writing and recording the Moonlow album I had often stood outside looking into the dark sky and observing the moon and stars. I wanted to convey this image and its associated feelings with the album art. I drew up a very rough sketch of the approximate composition for the cover art and scrawled notes all over.

Alex says that his way of working was “very intuitive and spontaneous while taking in Moonlow’s soundscapes - not much of a thought through idea. But this suited very well Moonlow’s approach. The only intention was to make something pure, minimalistic and rough.”

I am very pleased with the final results. The colour scheme Alex used matches the mood perfectly and I was very impressed with his use of small coloured dots as the basis for the moon’s face. A brilliant touch of Alex’s was to depict the words of the band name almost being sucked out of the moon’s head. I also really like the stark and simple yet emotive facial expression that the moon bears. I was instantly struck by how iconic the “Moonlow” logo was, and I was pleased that Alex had chosen to separate the two words “moon” and “low” and to stack them on top of one another.

Who Are You?, the debut album by Moonlow is released on 16th October 2020 and I am very excited to share the music and the artwork with the world.

Dust