Robert Costea – Album Artwork

I have been fortunate to have Robert Costea, RoCoART, doing the artwork for my recent albums. Robert, who designed the album cover art for A Quiet Light as he did for the two previous Somewhere off Jazz Street albums, has a great feeling for music, and for matching images to the music.

Working with Robert has been much like working and improvising with jazz musicians, where no words are needed. Play the music and they respond with their creation. I send Robert the music for the album and my very brief thoughts on what the album is about and somehow, magically he responds with the perfect image.

Robert has also done the artwork for the SOJS albums Beyond This and Whispers of Empty Spaces, as well as another project of mine called Clamour Head, which is one of my favorites covers. 

Thank you Robert !

A Quiet Light – 2011

A Quiet Light, the latest Somewhere off Jazz Street release, is a collection of quiet, dark, jazz influenced moods from the late, late hours of the night. Slow tempos, the sound of brushes on the snare, a saxophone speaking in soft tones and whispers. The music for A Quiet Light is melancholic and at times even haunting, as on the tracks Dusk and Ghost. But in the dark and grey atmospheres of the album there’s also a faint ray of hope, most notable on the final track Dawn.

The sax, acoustic bass and drums sounds, the core of the music, are augmented with acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, piano and string sounds. Subtle electronic textures play a key role in the music and add much to the feeling of the album. An electronically processed flute sound gives an uneasy feeling to the first track while in Ghost, a spellbinding effect is created with sampled whale sounds played from the keyboard. In the seven minute long Fly, electronics and the Rhodes electric piano set the background for the sax to explore and improvise.

The album artwork is done by Robert Costea, who created a perfect visual for the themes of the music. An old abandoned building that has seen it’s better days, but through the panes of the glass windows, the light of another day.

A Quiet Light is free to download in mp3 and FLAC lossless formats.

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The album is also available on Bandcamp