Presents for the Printer (Pt 1)

That’s Barbara Hodgson’s scratch sheet for the marginalia she added to the five “Dutch” copies of Fragments & Glimpses. With the book issued and some money coming in, I did a little profit taking before year’s end: a Takach 8-inch 60-dur brayer – schwing! I’m going to be using the foolscap Albion press more in the coming year, and the hand roller I use on the Washington is too unweildy for the smaller bed. 

One of the things that’s fun about a project like Griffo is you get to buy books for reference, and often they’re books you might not purchase (or even know of) without specific reason. Here are the entries for the edtion of Heroides that provided the leaf included with Fragments & Glimpses. The first is from the 1803 edition of Serie dell’edizioni Aldine...

...and the second is from the apparently uncommon 1803 Appendice alla Serie dell’edizioni Aldine, which is about as all-round perfect a book as I can imagine.

New topic: here’s a spread (and the entire text) from Bannfluch Gegen Spinoza (Ernst Ludwig Presse, 1925). I’ll have more to share about the press in January...

To close this week, here’s a short clip of Harold Budd performing in Seattle with Keith Lowe, an event that coincided with the publication of Harold’s first collection of poetry, Colorful Fortune. Although I’d worked with him (and Keith) on the project during the previous year, this was the first time I actually met Harold. It was a brilliant evening. They also performed a version of “For As Long As I Can Hold My Breath” that used to be posted, but it’s disappeared. Adios Harold, muchos gracias por todos.  

Books (& etc) by Composers

If asked, Harold Budd describes himself first as a composer, and only second as a performing musician.

One of HM’s founding goals was to work with people - typically visual artists - interested in creating books, but not already working in that realm. That goal, and an introduction through musician Keith Lowe, is how HM connected with Harold Budd and his poetry. I can’t recall how I was first introduced to his arabesque drawings, but that opened the door for experimenting with printmaking, which Harold was game to try. For the deluxe edition of our first collaboration, Colorful Fortune, we experimented with printing photo-engravings of his original drawings. The chapbook “4” and the Carnival portfolio took the next logical step, presenting original copperplate engravings (i.e. intaglio prints) by Harold - he did them directly on the plates with a needle, and we etched and printed them in Vancouver. For Aurora Teardrops, I asked him to create eight new arabesque drawings to be included throughout the book; these are being printed as line engravings (a relief process). I also (finally) talked him into letting me print one of his scores.

All of this is a précis to this week’s post, something that’s been an interest of mine: printmaking and similar visual experiments by composers and musicians.

John Cage’s interest in printmaking and graphics is well known. He experimented with printmaking at San Francisco’s Crown Point Press, including setting fire to things. Some of his prints are still available, and you can see (buy) them here but not for cheap. A number of his books present his mesostic texts, but no one seems to have used these as a basis for anything more than a standard trade publication. The only limited edition of his that I’ve been able to find is Mud Book, a (not terribly interesting) youthful collaboration with the artist Lois Long published in an edition of 500 copies in 1983 (and subsequently published in a trade edition). Despite the relatively large edition, the signed copy is uncommon; I can’t find one offered at the moment, and the most recently catalogued copy I found (2007) was $1,500. Granary published a book called Nods in a very small edition, but it seems more an “inspired by” project than an actual book by/with Cage. Good luck finding a copy.

Brian Eno was a painter who started making music, and he has continued creating visual art throughout his career (perhaps most famously his 77 Million Paintings). His 2010 a deluxe edition of his album Small Craft on a Milk Sea was issued, with an original screenprint (not a reproduction: similar to come of his strategies for working in a recording studio, he used a small number of screens to create different visual combinations). That project seems to have got him on a printmaking kick: he created more than a dozen silkscreen prints over the next few years, & it looks like he was using the same process of playing with different screens to build up an image. The prints were issued to coincide with installations, but are also available from his online gallery.

But he hasn’t really played around with creating a book in the same way. The only real “limited edition” book with his name attached that I know of is More Dark Than Shark (discussed in this old post). Chronicle should have done something fun with a few hundred copies of Visual Music (I told you all to buy a copy when you had the chance), but like More Dark… that isn’t technically a book by Eno. He has issued a few different editions of his Oblique Strategies cards over the years, but none of the ones I’ve seen look especially lovely. So, as far as we know, no Eno livre d’artiste to date.

Genesis, in the UK, has established a reputation for publishing elaborate limited-edition books by and with (rock) musicians (mostly ones who emerged in the '60s and early '70s, maybe because that’s the age demographic with the interest and cash to buy the books). They seem well produced, but they’re still just commercial coffee-table books printed offset. Not better or worse, but distinctly different than a book produced letterpress, by hand.

Over in Paris First Third Books is mining a similar musical vein, but with the generation that followed Bowie & the Stones. Again, interesting looking, but still commercially/mechanically produced.

Steering back toward composers, pre-1900 most of the printed materials by or related to composers were scores. Above is a nice little two-page Beethoven doodle. I know of a few interesting books from the first half of the last century. Random House issued a limited edition of the score for Porgy & Bess in 1935, signed by the Gershwin. From pictures it looks like a lovely production (especially the binding), but maybe not easy to find in good condition. Merle Armitage published a tribute to Arnold Schoenberg in 1937, and there 50 special copies signed by the composer, but there's nothing terribly remarkable about the book itself. The most interesting thing I can find from Steve Reich is a facsimile of his score for Drumming, issued in 1972 with two vinyl recordings, limited to 500 copies.

Philip Glass published a sort-of musical autobiography in 1987 (Music By Philip Glass). There was a signed edition of 250 copies issued with a laid-in facsimile page from his score for Akhnaten, but it’s just a trade book tarted up. A more interesting publication is the record of his Einstein On The Beach collaboration with Robert Wilson, published in trade & limited editions by Editions Dilecta. Copies of the limited edition (40 for sale) still seem to be available (at 1,200 Euros), but you’re limited to a maximum of two. And again, it’s really just a well-made trade book, not something created entirely by hand.

AH Allen is an interesting project that involved a number of musicians and composers, including Glass (& Joe Strummer!). It was a tribute to Allen Ginsberg, with contributions by over 40 of his peers and friends. This is what I’m talking about when I use the phrase livre d’artiste: it was set in metal type and printed letterpress by Leslie Miller, beautifully hand-bound by Claudia Cohen, and issued in an edition of just 200 copies signed by the contributors (a lotta signatures). Beyond the content, the book was an expression of fine bookmaking, both in materials and execution. (There are three copies offered online right now, starting at $6,000. I know of a copy going for about half that, if you’re interested…) 

So that’s a brief tour through contemporary publishing by and with composers and musicians. Lots of the books seem to be little more than a signature added to a regular (& often indifferently designed & printed) hardcover. Eh. Aurora Teardrops, on the other hand, was created in deep collaboration with Harold and Jane Maru over the past three years. We explored a number of different design ideas and formats, working toward something that fully exploits the technical and artistic opportunities that doing everything by hand offers. Printing & binding the edition will take over 2,000 hours of labor (contrary to what the prices might suggest, no one gets into this for the money; the guiding principle at HM for these kinds of collaborations is, we’ll all be equally underpaid). The first newsletter to subscribers will go out soon, with details for pre-ordering. Of the 26 deluxe copies, only 20 will be offered for sale; 40 of the 50 regular copies will be offered. A limited number of copies from each issue will be available at a discounted price for pre-order. Details to follow...

Eight Drawings by Harold Budd

I have an interesting post in the works, about books by composers and musicians. But it's taking longer to find all the bits I want to include - plus I'm still printing - so for this week just have a look the eight original drawings by Harold that are being reproduced in Aurora Teardrops. Come back Monday, I promise it'll be interesting.

Aurora Teardrops (the poem)

Once you're into the printing of a book, most of the fun work is done & you're just into the grind. For Aurora Teardrops, it's two days on (printing off a sheet, a day per side), one off (doing all the things that don't get done while printing). By chance, last weekend's sheet included the title poem, on a page that happens to have one of Harold's arabesques. That's the Regular at left (Golden Hind laid paper) and the Deluxe at right (TH Saunders wove).

(This is the second time I've printed that poem. It's was first published in the Sunblind Highway collection from earlier this year. So for all of you completists, track one down at Books Tell You Why).

For everyone who has subscribed to the project newsletters, the first one should be going within the next week. Thanks for all the expressions of interest & enthusiasm. HM

It's Steeper Near The Roses

Last week we proofed a large version of Harold's manuscript score for "It's Steeper Near the Roses." A slightly smaller version will appear in Aurora Teardrops. The piece (from his album Avalon Sutra) was dedicated to David Sylvian, which is why we chose it to include in the book. (Also, the first poem, opposite which the score will appear, begins with the lines "I could compose a love poem / (if I were in love - I may be close) / Were it sung by David Sylvian / it would enter Paradise...") Just a handful of the larger versions of the score were proofed, for sharing among the collaborators.

As previously posted, the eight arabesque drawings by Harold that appear throughout the book have all be printed, and we're into the text now: 16 sheets two-up (two pages on each side of a sheet, folded to make a total of four book pages). All of the text has been set, so we pulled one complete proof of the book just to check everything one last time. It's not meant to be lovely, so don't look to close.

See the previous post (below) if you are interested in receiving updates on Aurora Teardrop's progress and publication details. We expect to be issuing copies starting in September.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Aurora Teardrops is only just getting into the press but it's already clocked over 10,000 miles. The sheets with Harold and Jane's signatures were printed in January, with the plan being for them to sign while in town for their performance. That only half-happened after Jane's trip fell through. So, the sheets got shipped to her in Joshua Tree.

We had hoped David Sylvian (author of the book's introduction) would also be able to sign, but coordinating with his travels was the challenge. While the sheets were in Joshua Tree he wrote to say he'd be stationary for the week, and if we could get the sheets to him in time he'd sign. So, Jane scrambled to get the sheets to David, who very kindly & promptly signed the ones to be included in the 26 copies deluxe.

The sheet on the right (above), with just Jane & Harold's signatures, is for the 50 other copies, i.e. not part of the deluxe issue, mouldmade instead of handmade paper, not as many prints, a simpler binding. I refuse to call these "regular" copies; we'll think of an appropriate designation. Both sheets will be calligraphically editioned (A thru Z and 1 thru 50) when the books are bound.

The sheets flew back to Jane, who then bundled them up with the original watercolors she did, one to be included as a frontis in each of the deluxe copies, and sent the lot back to HM. Now I just have to make sure they don't get destroyed or lost while the rest of the book is being produced...

A New Harold Budd Page

Longtime HM bookseller Books Tell You Why, Inc. has just launched a page on their Web site dedicated to our publications with composer/musician Harold Budd. This is the first time all of his poetry collections are available in one place, along with some biographical details, videos, and links to longer articles about him.

There've been a few other Budd-related developments recently for the upcoming Aurora Teardrops. Both are also David Sylvian-related. First, we confirmed that David will be signing the 26 deluxe copies, which is kool. And second, we're going to include a copy of the manuscript score for Harold's composition "It's Steeper Near the Roses" (Dedicated to David Sylvian) from the Avalon Sutra album. I've been wanting to print a score of Harold's for ages, and the why & how have finally come together. The piece is just over a minute, so the score fits neatly on a single sheet.

My interest in printing a score goes back to the Carnival project, for which Harold created six copper plate engravings, each one named for a Renaissance composer. One of them - Baude Cordier - sometimes wrote shaped scores (like shaped typography) that are beautiful, and sparked the idea of printing scores in Harold's delicate hand (his scores aren't shaped, but they include interesting, non-traditional elements). Then I found this (below) in a Berkeley paper ephemera shop: a 19th century score for the first horn (trumpet?) from Barber of Seville.

Printed from engraved plates (look at the lettering!), both sides, on a beautiful, thick & textured handmade sheet. Eight pages total, sewn in a practical (& lovely) stiff holland paper wrap.

Anyway, along with the 59 poems and Jane Maru's art that you'll find in Aurora Teardrops, there also will be a facsimile Harold Budd score. Score! Till then, go shopping at the Books Tell You Why page.

Harold Budd's "Sunblind Highway"

Harold's show in Vancouver last Saturday night has been getting resoundingly enthusiastic reactions. It was given an unexpected twist when passport problems prevented Jane Maru from participating as planned. In her place, local singer/performer Veda Hille stepped in on a moment's notice and gave the Aurora Teardrops poems her own (essentially spontaneous, since she had barely a day with them) interpretation.

While all this last minute excitement was happening, I was pushing to get copies of the sampler Sunblind Highway sewn up. Harold signed the (still unbound) Publisher's copies just before sound check on Saturday (which is when he also met Veda for the first time).

The Author's copies (numbers 21-100 from the edition of 100, sewn in a wrap of green Guarro mouldmade paper) were offered for sale during the show at the special price of just $40. The 20 Publisher's copies will be distributed through HM's usual booksellers.

The Publisher's copies are printed on Arches wove, and sewn into a handmade paste paper wrap. These copies also feature a semi-transparent usu kichi jacket on which the title has been printed and registered to exactly overlay the title on the underlying wrap.

The Publisher's copies also feature a special extra print of Harold's frontis arabesque drawing, also printed on semi-transparent Japanese paper. The image is repeated in reverse on the recto of the sheet, using the same off-set technique that William Everson used for the prints in his monumental Granite/Cypress publication. Like the jacket, this extra print is sewn into the book to exactly overlay the frontis.

So, now the world has an inexpensive introduction to Harold's beautiful not-quite poetry (his phrase), and HM moves on to the real work of producing Aurora Teardrops. I'll post info on where/how remaining copies of Sunblind Highway can be purchased.

AND ANOTHER THING!

Harold's recent gigs has sparked awareness of, & interest in his poetry. As a result we've decided to add a second issue to Aurora Teardops:

The deluxe edition will feature an original painted frontis (i.e. unique to each copy) by Jane Maru, and a number of prints interleaved through the text. This edition, limited to 26 lettered copies, will be custom bound by Claudia Cohen.

A limited edition of 50 numbered copies, with just two of Jane's prints, will also be issued, bound at HM in paper over boards.

sunblinded by the light

Monday's not over yet, so I'm still on deadline...

kids, look: it got done. Was a bit brutal from a production perspective - 10 straight days at the handpress - but we're on schedule. Today was recuperate & prep. Tomorrow (Tues) we print the covers, Wed they get sewn up (with help from Reg the Paper). All's kool. Sounds like this Saturday's gig, where Sunblind Highway makes its debut, is near to sell-out: everyone within commuting distance, make haste!

fyi, image above is what the half-title looks like, shone thru a light, in a punch-drunk printing fog (i.e. not what it really looks like)...

Halfway Down the Highway

Halfway through printing the Sunblind Highway sampler of Harold Budd's poems. It includes three poems from the upcoming Aurora Teardrops, one being the title poem. So, Sunblind Highway contains the first publication of the the poem "Aurora Teardrops"! That'll drive cataloguers and collectors crazy.

The sheets shown above are from the Publisher's 20 special copies printed on Arches Wove; the remaining 80 are on Somerset Book, an English all-cotton sheet. I'm running a total of 130 sheets through the press, to allow for wastage & my general boneheadedness. The white-on-white paste papers that the printed sheets are lying on will be used for the wrap of the Publisher's copies. (The designs were created with titanium white by Reg Lissel, on sheets of all-cotton paper made by him.) The Author copies will be sewn into a forest green sheet of Guarro laid paper, with the title printed in gold on the front.

Must push on. Takes three days to complete a sheet, plus there are the covers to print, & then everything has to be collated & sewn. I probably should have started a week earlier...

Sunblind Starts

Starting the year off by making amends for the horrorshow that has been HM's Web site for the past few years. Long overdue for tearing down & reconstructing. Got a simple replacement in place over the holidays. Much of the verbiage has been scrubbed, & the images are of a more consistent quality. Probably a few bugs still lurking, but they'll be run down over the next week.

With that done, we sink our teeth in Harold Budd's mini-retrospective chapbook, Sunblind Highway: 16 pages, 6 x 10 inches, sewn into a printed paper wrap. Spent today tearing down paper. The edition will be 100 copies, 20 Publisher's copies on Arches Wove (the small paper stack in the middle of the image above) and 80 on Somerset Book (larger stack at right), all printed damp. I'll print 125 pieces to ensure I have 100 I like. The blotters for damping are clean & ready to go. Nothing else to do. May as well get started. Stop talking about it. Just get it done.

Brief yet insightful Q&A with Harold over at The Kitchen's blog. 

AND ANOTHER THING

Deluxe copies of XI LXIVmos started going out to our booksellers last week...

A Sharp End for the Year

I'm on vacation so don't expect a lot of blogging. Couple of sharp Xmas highlights:

Handmade Merchant & Mills draper's scissors, perfect for the bindery. Beautiful. But being a custom enterprise, M&M should invest a little more in the printing of their wrapping sheets & labels. Get some letterpress happening. I'm sure there's someone with a press in Sheffield.

One of Deejo's elegant pocket knives. I covet minimalist pocket knives, i.e. ones with the fewest possible parts, to slide unobtrusively into one's trouser pocket. The Deejos get about as spare as possible without being a fixed blade. Might get one of the larger models to use for slitting paper...

Happy New Year. If all goes well, HM will have a new Web site by the start of 2016. Only about a decade overdue. I'll also have started printing Harold's chapbook Sunblind Highway. His Vancouver gig rapidly approaches!

Harold Budd in Print

Update: see the article about Harold & his Aurora Teardrops gigs in today's Guardian...

The next two projects in the press come from the pen of Harold Budd. This week he and  Bradford Ellis will perform at The Kitchen, accompanied by Jane Maru reading selected poems from HM's upcoming publication Aroura Teardrops. Below is a shot from their performance earlier this fall in Joshua Tree...

To mark the trio's appearance in Vancouver next January, HM will be publishing a chapbook with eight poems selected from Colorful Fortune, 4, Angel and Aurora Teardrops, plus two that will be unique to this collection. The book, titled Sunblind Highway, is offered as an introduction to Harold's poetry, and an affordable alternative to the more costly original publications for his admirers.

Sunblind Highway (6 x 10 inches, 16 pages plus cover) will be printed by hand, letterpress, at Heavenly Monkey, in exactly the same manner as Aurora Teardrops. One of Harold's distinctive arabesque drawings is reproduced as a frontispiece. The text will be set in Bodoni types and printed in two colors. The edition will be 100 numbered copies. The first 20 (Publisher's copies) will be signed by Harold & printed on Arches wove paper, sewn into a handmade paper wrap. Copies 21-100 (Author's copies) will be printed on Somerset Book paper, sewn into a stiff printed paper wrap.

Copies of Sunblind Highway will be available for purchase at the Vancouver show. Any remaining copies will be offered for sale; details to follow.

Aurora Teardrops (8 x 10 inches, approximately 80 pages) will be set in Cancelleresca Bastarda and Umbra types, printed on dampened Arches Wove paper. The text pages will also feature details from four of Harold's arabesque drawings, treated with color paint washes, bleeding off the edges. Inserted between text spreads will be full-page bleed reproductions of Jane Maru's intense and mesmerizing batik paintings, printed on semi-transparent vellum paper that replicates the original silk's quality of seeing the painting from either side.

We're particularly pleased that the new collection includes to include a two-page introduction by David Sylvian, Harold's friend and colleague. Written in David's characteristic evocative style, it is a beautiful encapsulation of the poetry and the poet.

Aurora Teardrops as described above will be published in an edition of just 26 press-lettered copies (plus 8 numbered contributor copies) signed by Harold and Jane. We do, however, have plans to to publish a second edition in a simpler format, but printed at the same time, the same way, from the same setting. While this edition will probably not number more than 50 copies, it will offer Harold's admirers a more affordable option for securing their own copy of his most extensive collection of poetry to date.

Aurora Teardrops is scheduled for publication in Spring, 2016.

Aurora Teardrops, Live

We're still finalizing the setting & layout of Aurora Teardrops, the next poetry collection by Harold Budd, but he's already taking the poems on tour. The book, which promises to be on of HM's most colorful publications to date, will include batik paintings by Jane Maru (detail above). The two of them will be appearing on December in New York City at the famed Kitchen, for an improvised performance (by Harold) and reading (by Jane). They will also be appearing as part of Vancouver's annual PuSh Festival next January. I plan on having them sign the colophons for Aurora Teardrops when they're in town. More details to come.

This is why we need bookstores! You stumble across books you didn't know about, like this collection of provocative & engaging essays by Rick Poynor, Rules No More. One of the designers whose work is discussed is David Carson ("looks increasingly like a coruscating one-off"). I first encountered his design work in Ray Gun magazine in the early '90s. It ran some excellent articles, but they often were rendered unreadable, or at least undecipherable, by his layouts.

Another recent find, this odd book from Steidl. I think it basically is a facsimile of a unique manuscript copy, but the details in the book and on Steidl's site are fuzzy. A single sewn signature in a slipcase, it's a brief text by Keanu Reeves with drawings by Alexandra Grant. To be frank I could take or leave the content (written & visual). What caught my eye, in addition to the format, are the beautifully printed reproductions of monochromatic washes. I think it would have been improved by having the text set in type.

If you go on a bookshop tour this week, you might see a copy of a newly published paperback reproducing Jim Westergard's Oddball engravings. I haven't seen it, but I can confirm it is not a facsimile of HM's original publication. I'll try to get some news about it from Jim for next week... I'm not a fan of books that attempt to replicate one print medium with another (i.e. offset reproductions of wood engravings), but if it introduces a new audience to Jim's talent, that's a good thing.