A new vinyl release by Paul Armfield will come packaged with a collection of original linocut prints depicting scenes that compliment the ten songs.

Paul says ‘My last album ‘Found’ came boxed with cd and postcards, it was such a success, the 1000 copies selling out very quickly, with people really appreciating that they had something special. As music becomes more and more devalued in the digital age, I want to give back a sense of worth to my music, to demonstrate that there is a lot of love, care, thought and consideration behind it. I also want the packaging to enhance the experience of listening:  the inks and the papers I have chosen have a feel and a smell, and the images I’ve created offer a further context to the lyrics, and it all works together to create a greater and more personal experience.’

Paul goes on to add ‘Putting such a unique product together is not something that I’d be able to do within a record label and so, as with the last record, I will be releasing this myself. To ensure that we can finance the best possible quality we are running a crowd-funding campaign’. By pledging to buy the album and various other unique offers Paul hopes to raise enough money to pay for the record’s manufacture, packaging and promotion.

Although not the first time that the singer-songwriter has used his own artwork on sleeve designs this project will be very much an exclusive.  The limited edition of 100 will come in a lush presentation box, featuring the record and the 10 album sized prints on fine quality paper. For those who prefer cds there will be a similarly boxed smaller version featuring reproductions of the originals, and for those who’d just like to download they will be able to purchase an original print with the download code on the reverse.

Paul’s love of linocut printing has gone from an occasional hobby to a more regular activity as he creates monthly posters for the SHHH music nights he promotes at Monkton Arts in Ryde. The technique involves carving the mirror image into a sheet of thick linoleum, rolling it with ink and then pressing the print onto paper. Until recently Paul did the pressing with the back of a spoon, repeatedly rubbing until all the ink had transferred to the paper, an arduous and slow process, however he recently converted an old mangle into a printing press and now he says the process is much quicker ‘although for this album I’ll need to produce a thousand prints and that will still take hundreds of hours’.