Ollie Howell - Sutures and Stitches - Album Art Inspiration

One of my biggest art jobs of 2013 was the debut album from drummer Ollie Howell. Along with the music came an impressive endorsement from Quincy Jones, "An unbelievable drummer. So creative I couldn’t believe it. This kid really is a 360-degree beautiful young cat that I believe has what it takes to make a life out of music".

Ollie Howell's 'Sutures and Stitches' album

He had also just been awarded the prestigious Peter Whittingham Development Award and went on soon after to win a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship. One of only 5 Arts Scholars (and the only musician chosen), Ollie became the first ever jazz recipient of any Sky award, and will now be working towards his second album, as well as having a documentary on him and his group on Sky Arts in 2015.

His debut, 'Sutures and Stitches' was released on Whirlwind Recordings in 2013 and I was luckily enough to be at Clown's Pocket Studio when he recorded the tracks. DAY 1 and DAY 2. I received all the music a few months later and started my process by taking written notes. These narrative clues were invaluable as I created the visual artwork.

Below I reproduce both the written content and the many covers we worked through.

19th Day

19th Day
I'm a barefoot daredevil whose motorbike has broken down and I'm going to run the 'wall of death' on my own two legs.

Mechanic!

Breathe breathe again.

Its clogging and the smoke is penetrating my bones but I keep on running. Swirling and cascading like a soaring bird that's abandoned a thermal and whips into a tail spin.

 

Angry Skies

 

 

 

Angry Skies

Light on a garden path. Jumping over the pools of light, almost skipping.

The lightning cracks down like rhododendron branches. Ripping into the world.

We cold climb through the cracks that are left like a nursery rhyme.

My finger plays across the glass as I look out at inhospitable views, so many paths.

 

Beyond

Beyond

Skid and skate, scrabble and run.

Through bracken, what a beautiful thing. How can something remind you of life when it is so dead. Complexity of life is a reward.

A thousand bugs that make me up, clinging to me like moths.

Chin like a hammer.

Proudness.

Chewing Cracking.

Hammer head boy

Lemon boy

Great white boy

Tiger boy

Bull boy

Goblin boy

Blue boy

Megamouth boy

Basking boy.



For Anya

For Anya

Belly

Tracing my hands around a waist, circumnavigating an equatorial navel.

But flat.

Sometimes we still believe that the world is flat and that women are real.

I squeezed the water out like a sponge.

Drawing it up though like a magnet and with it came the tears too.

For Anya

Upravelling like a ball of string. Weaving it into clouds.

A knitted Wordsworth, stitches of colour.

I'm unravelling, i'm not scared.

Like a cartoon jumper, i'm unravelling to become you.

 

 

Later on

Later on

As an adult its more fun.

Just being happy alone.

You can be happy alone.

I dance in the front window.

I know everyone can see me, but who would be awake.

They're all asleep with books on their bellies or awash with the chill light from flickering boxes, but I'm dancing.

The music moves my body, the frame, I'm happy to be contained.

Fuck reaching the stars.

Dont reach out to me. I'm in this crowd and still surrounded by triple glazing.

Warmth like a happiness that escapes the body.




Stockholm

Stockholm

Some chaos.

Black piles with a gothic flavour, complicating the flow.

Bridges and rivers.

Small scurrying people, fast moving.

Black creatures, they are what we've made them. Hanging in windows on hooks, but there are pockets of safety. Boxes of safety, pegged together with ladder like spikes.

Shockwaves, tremors in my feet, what is coming from below to meet me.

The floor is shifting yet it is hard.

I'm being pulverised, pushed like putty into a small round hole.

 

World Apart

This is the image that eventually made it onto the album cover for Ollie Howell's album 'Sutures and Stitches' and inspired by the track....

World Apart

Escalator and stairs.

Push dont push.

Ground under by shallow breath. Give me air. Again like vermin but comforted.

Crumpled linen. Stiff with sweat.

Straight down and up shafts and cuts.

Punched down electric tool and drills, all smooth.

Space is limited

Lash out and rise above.

Adverts of us – repeating us.

Self fulfilling.

The train keeps entering the tunnel.

They dont cling anymore. Cracking and spitting through the polished tubes.

Punchy and spewing.

Then they stop. Sometimes a random train contains a collection of disperate unconnected figures. Bouncing off the metal shell like a childs bagatelle.

Then they too are dumped into the mix and churned with us.

 

 AL.

Ollie Howell: Safe in Derek Nash's hands



Derek Nash, Mark Perry, Matt Robinson, Ollie Howell, Max Luthert & Duncan Eagles

Before the quintet arrived on Day 2, I spent some time with Derek Nash as he ate his porridge and prepared for the day ahead. We all know him from Jools Holland's Rhthym and Blues Orchestra, and as the front man in Sax Appeal and Protect the Beat but I hadn't known of his early days as a sound engineer at the BBC. This made perfect sense as the Quintet arrived and Derek patiently honed the recording. He unselfishly contributed his ideas and shared his knowledge with the assembled band, but never dominated Ollie Howell's overall concept.

Much of day 2 was spent listening and discussing how the music was developing. Even though Howell had a handful of charts for everyone there was a healthy jousting for interpretation.
As they prepared to record Angry Skies a conversation unfolded -
MP - Lets talk concepts
DE - lets do 8 bars each then I'll hint at the tune & then play the tune
MP - Who's going first
DE - I like those chords
MP - We can probably mess it up
DE - I can do 8, you can do 16, I do 16, then we'll not know what's going on!
MP - I come in whenever I want to come in!
DE - Are you angry?
MP - I'm going to go mental on the D Free!!!!!!!

I don't want to give the impression that all discussions we're about serious music concerns. One of the hot topics was Christmas food and we were treated to Giles Coren style dissection of Sainsbury's Boxing Day Lunch Sandwich by Matt Robinson. A little research reveals he is one of the team behind the popular Christmas Sandwich Review Website.

Before leaving for the day I sketched the recording of 19th Day, a tune Howell had penned on his 19th Day in his hospital bed and dedicated to the trumpeter Sam Palmer.

The music has now arrived in my inbox and I'll be getting some images together for the CD so keep an eye out in 2013 for The Ollie Howell Quintet and the album that will be 'Sutures and Stitches'.

Alban

Ollie Howell Quintet debut - Day1



Ollie Howell - drums

Just a few short days after Ollie Howell won the Peter Whittingham Development Award I was lucky enough to find myself at Clown Pocket's Studio with his quintet. I'd only sketched Ollie once before (Hideaway's Monday Jam) and to my embarrassment knew nothing of his tunes. As Ollie started to warm-up he explained to me why I'd been kept in the dark.
Since meeting his mentor, Quincy Jones, in 2010 his life has been punctuated with several operations, lengthy hospital stays and periods of recuperation. To my surprise he was remarkably positive about the experience -

" I found new inspiration for my compositions, and was writing in a very different way to how I previously had done. Now the compositions mean much more to me than just notes and chords. Many of the tunes that will be on the CD were actually written in my hospital bed!

The music chronicles a really life-changing point in my life, but it is also a statement about how positivity and determination can overcome anything."



Matt Robinson





Max Luthert

 It is one of the perks of an artist's job that I can attend these recording sessions and familiarise myself with the music and the musicians. Derek Nash's excellent studio is split into 3 main rooms/booths and so I worked my way through them listening and sketching. Another member of the quintet I'd never heard before was Matt Robinson. He was crammed behind Derek's Steinway which was bizarrely covered in a Zebra skin style rug. His style was laid back and understated but as the intensity increased he asserted himself on the compositions and his tongue flicked out of his mouth like a rudder in a stormy sea.

On Bass, Saxophone and Trumpet were Max Luthert, Duncan Eagles and Mark Perry who have become regular collaborators in recent years.
 In fact Mr Luthert and I are showing our first film together at the British Shorts Exhibition in Berlin (Sputnik Kino) this January.


Mark Perry

 
Under the dramatic studio lighting Luthert came alive as the first tune of the day, World Apart, kicked into life. I was sealed into the booth and could hear through the triple glazed glass as Mark Perry cried "I'm going to go mental at the end of my solo". And he did.

I then ventured into Eagles and Perry's lair. Perry has a perpetual twinkle in his eye and with Eagles maintained a constant double act throughout the next hour. He joked (or declared) " I play the first 8 bars of what Ollie's written and then ignore the rhythm and the chords and play whatever I want."


Duncan Eagles

 Duncan Eagles, was physically under the weather but I knew he was on top musical form when his left shoulder bucked into life like a kicking mule. A great indicater of his dedication and commitment to the music.
We then spent many hours as Derek Nash masterfully carressed the quintet recording. Day 1 resulted in 7 tunes - World apart, So close so far, Later on, They, Dear old Stockholm, Hollow Victory and Beyond.

I'll be writing up Day 2 tomorrow.

Alban