Tag Archives: Vinyl records

Uncategorized

Two New Klaus Voormann Titles Added to My Collection.

3 Comments

I don’t need to work too hard to keep up to date with record releases that have cover art by Klaus Voormann. Thorsten Knublauch–expert on all things about the Beatles in Germany–is also an expert on KLaus Voormann’s art and has tipped me off about a couple of Voormann’s books as well as most of the Voormann covers I’ve collected in recent years. He tippped me off about Wolfgang Bernreuther’s 2023 Still a Fool album when it first appeared as a CD and a quick search of Discogs allerted me to a limited edition vinyl version that I finally got hold of this week.

The deluxe vinyl version includes a fourteen-track 180g LP, a bonus 12″ four-track maxi EP, a large poster of the cover art as well as a Klaus Voormann print. Apparently the deluxe album is limited to 1000 copies.

A couple of months ago Thorsten sent me a picture of a CD with Voormann art that I hadn’t seen before.

The CD was produced by the POP Akademie Baden-Würtemburg and released in 2014. It wasn’t listed on Discogs and I couldn’t find any information about it online. So, I googled the Pop Akademie and found their home page but no contact information. I asked Thorsten if he could try to contact them–my German is non-existent–so I reckoned he would have a better chance of finding a way to get in touch with them. Sure, enough, he not only contacted them but weedled a couple of CDs from them, too, and sent me one.

Now my collection of Klaus Voormann covers totals one hundred and one releases, of the largest of my cover collections–only my Andy Warhol cover collection is bigger.

One of the most common questions people ask me when talking about my record cover collection is “How many covers did so-and-so do?” When discussing Andy Warhol’s cover art, people generally know two covers–and are surprised to hear that he was responsible for almost eighty in his lifetime. Few know that Peter Blake has designed thirty seven covers–they might know Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and, perhaps, Paul Weller’s Stanley Road, but few others. And who knew that David Shrigley has been responsible for forty-one covers?

Anyway–Thank you Throrsten for keeping me up to date on Klaus Voormann’s recrd cover art! I’m truly grateful.

Lou Reed - Words & Music 1965, Masaki Koike, Record cover art

Lou Reed — Words and Music May 1965.

Leave a comment

Design: Masaki Koike.

I don’t usually succumb to the temptation to buy a record designed by someone other than one of the designers I already collect. However, I’m a fan of Lou Reed and when I read that his latest release, designed by the Japanese-American Masaki Koike, based in Los Angeles, had been nominated for a Grammy in the package design category that I thought I would ignore my own collection rule and invest. Sadly, Koike didn’t win the Grammy but his design won my approval.

This album has been proiduced by Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson and associates. Anderson found a reel-to-reel tape of Lou Reed’s early music in a sealed envelope among Reed’s possesions.

I am not alone as a vinyl collector in that I try to buy two copies of each release for my collection — one I keep sealed while the second copy is my display copy. So I had to buy two copies of the Lou Reed album. Of course I wanted the limited edition — a double album with a limited edition seven-inch EP and a CD. Most copies of this version available online or in my local record shops cost $100 or more. I was lucky to find copies for $60..

The outer and inner spreads of the cover. The seven-inch EP is visible on the left and the CD on the right, overlying the booklet with lyrics.

The twoblack vinyl LPs are mastered at 45 rpm and housed in printed inner sleeves.

The outer cover is diecut with a series of 6 mm holes — 110 holes on the front cover. Even the seven-inch and CD covers are diecut with similar holes.

I am really pleased to have added this beautifully designed album to my collection. My congratulations to Masaki Koike for the great design. I noticed that the band round the album calls this album “No. 1”. Hopefully there will be at least one follow-up collection.