By the time we had finished our recording session on our debut CD, "Times Three", the CD artwork, "Tri-Fi" (a triple horned Victor style talking machine)
had been completed. On our second CD release as a trio, "Off the Grid", ideas for the CD concept hadn't been conceived yet even after the recording sessions.
We discussed many ideas along the way including, "triple" ideas for instance, but none seemed to take hold. Until one beautiful day in the bay area, my
partner Roni and I took a day long excursion along the bay-trail, as we try to do on a weekly basis to stave off the insanity of every-day life. At the end
of the day, I came upon a power pole that had the right character; it had 3 large ceramic disc-shaped insulators on it. That day, the atmosphere
was such that the clouds were low and puffy, like cotton. Stratocumulus? With the puffy clouds in the background, I managed to take a fairly decent photo of the power pole.
.jpg "Original Pole Phone")
.jpg "Off The Grid, by Times Three")
.jpg "Off The Grid, by Times Three")
The trio loved the picture and ideas started flowing towards the completion of the CD package. The overhead photo by Geoffrey Gratz (that was not taken by a drone)
but taken from an overhead balcony, fit right along the lines of the the power pole idea.
.jpg "Photo by Gary Gratz")
.jpg "Photo by Gary Gratz")
After some extensive photoshop tweaking, the cover photo "wrap around" appears faded and colors yellowed, as if the picture was taken back in the '70's with a
110 pocket instamatic. It was Paul's idea to choose a bright "safety" yellow disc color to compliment the turquoise blue of the cover. What might fill the space
under the disc tray? I remembered my dad's collection of old power line insulators, but specifically ones that were glass. I wanted the element to work with the
CD, but also try to create an optical illusion or something interesting. I did some browsing for images on line and eventually saw this blue-green glass insulator
image, photographer Melissa M. Hartley's, "Looking Through the Bottom of a Brookfield Glass Insulator CD164." The colors and perspective seemed to work beautifully.
She has graciously allowed us to use her image on the CD:
You can peruse many of Melissa Hartley's photo catalogs
here or send her an email by clicking
.
We came up with some clever titles for the CD, but in the end, we ended up choosing an often-used contemporary phrase: "Off The Grid."