It was truly a delight to do this. As soon as I heard the name of this freshly organized jazz quartet, I knew- this is going to be interesting. Syncopated harmony of rhythms and sounds by Matthias Gmelin on drums, Henning Sieverts on bass, Tony Pancella on piano and Gregory Rivkin on trumpet, sure enough,- is a perfect match.

In order to capture the album’s artwork, I needed to go back to the roots and do my research. The first phase was to dive into process of listening to the actual record repeatedly on different days and get the enlightenment and spiritual encouragement: in other words- various mindsets. Any design, which is related to the music, should support its content and reflect the moods with colors, compositions and proper typography. This album represents modern interpretation of a sub-genre of Jazz- “Hard Bop”. This meant to me that I might consider to search and obtain my inspiration from the classics of 50-ies and 60-ies design.

A Certain Attitude 9

Soon, the concept ,I was looking for, had emerged… The term “A Certain Attitude” is an approach by itself- it is an individual state of mind we all tend to posses. The essence of it is what makes us unique and leads us up to our independent thoughts and actions. The next thing I did, was to chose a timeless urban winter photo, which,according to my intuition, could depict or evoke the feel of the Present Tense of our days or of few decades ago. I found my ” Hero” or a “Brand Character” in a “Drifter” and put him on a cover. The “drifter” wonders through the cycle of Life. Bonded together with his/her alter-ego, the drifter is always in the pursuit of invisible target, armed with a personal approach to reality and a free-spirit certain attitude. The collage of New York’ skyline and a forest gave me the impression of mysticism and feeling of parallel realities of the Universe.  To me, personally, it is more than just a concrete jungle- it is a complex and rich maze of narratives and personalities.The lonely journey of a drifter on a promenade by marine and the images of Grand Central station are here to support the concept, which I had in my mind.

A Certain Attitude 2

The whole look and feel of this work projects individuality, as these four great musicians gathered from different locations of the World to a crossroad, where they created this cultural meeting between them. Like four drifters, carrying their own baggage and personal attitudes, they made this music happen by putting themselves on their sleeves and simply poured out their talent by using their instruments.

For more great pictures of this project visit our project gallery.

I sincerely hope you’ll find further interest in this project on their current email: acertainattitude@gmail.com