Those cassettes and cedés that we become works of art

Pencil, paintings, cuatricolores pens, scissors, magazines such as ‘Discoplay’ E ‘Interviú’, newspapers, glue … Even fruit stickers or tobacco packages served for the purposes of the artists of the cover. Garikoitz Fraga says, responsible for the Editorial Beauty Infinite, that much guilt of the aesthetic value of those covers created to decorate the cassettes and the homemade invoice cedés had the necessary time to complete the recording of music in both formats, because we had to wait for one of the faces to end, turn it around, whether vinyl or tape, and wait to exhaust the second. Precious time to unleash the imagination and tune the wrapper.

In the 80s and 90s, who less who dared to outline a cover for one of these products, either with the aim of treasure them, show off the colleagues or give to some platonic love. One day, two old acquaintances from Fraga in the field of art, Xavier Carbonell and Joaquín Gáñez, returned to contact him with the idea of ​​dedicating a book to those objects.

“But it could happen,” says Fraga, “that, in practice, we would not find enough, because many people have undone of cedes and cassettes. In addition, perhaps the covers were your ones. And many were made to give away, so they could be difficult to locate … ». Even so, they launched: “We toured markets, we called everyone … and we have found authentic masterpieces of the art of the cover.” They ran into curious cases, such as “a very pretty girl from Madrid who accumulated a lot of cassettes designed for her for her fans.”

It was a year of research that resulted in the book ‘Thank you for music. CD covers and cassettes made at home ‘, of its infinite beauty publisher, created by Fraga in Bilbao in 2002 – in addition, the exhibition dedicated to Juan Carlos Eguillor that is exhibited until September in the Rekalde room. This volume includes hundreds of examples of both formats, jewels of aesthetics, creativity and humor.

Remember Fraga who first thought about dividing the material into chapters related to the groups, together with those of the Beatles, for example, or doing it for styles, rock, heavy … «But it was very uniform. And it occurred to us to divide the book as if it were an exhibition, because it is the art of the cover and it is good to group them for artistic styles ».

They came out a few chapters, which they titled with well -known songs that summarized the concept. In the first, ‘Fine stamp’ (Chabuca Granda), the covers are decorated with drawings, some of them quite fine, by the way, such as the one conceived by Oscar Martínez’s minimalist hand for a cedé of Fennesz, a simple line that is sun and mountains. The second has been right to call it ‘Alphabet Street’ (Prince), because the importance falls to the typography: “Some took one of those four -colored bike bolis and took out blue and red and wrote in both tones at the same time.”

In ‘Tutti Frutti’ (from Little Richard), there are collages of photos that epatan for the creativity and energy used in its elaboration. From the cover for the soundtrack of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, with a cinematographic Christ together with cuts of two crucifixions, to the cover of the cartoonist and writer Miguel Brieva for a cassette of ‘several’ with a sign of prohibited with one monigote pulling another to the roads and a text that in English says: “Please do not push strangers in front of the trains that approach.” Female breasts, mouths and legs with advertising aesthetics abound in the compositions, and even a penile drawing with a piercing for a album from The Faint.

Meanwhile, in ‘Pictures This’ (Blondie), the covers base their effectiveness on a main photo. There are two curious examples in which the cassettes holes with the wheels of a motorcycle and a car have been made … It would be necessary to see them turn in the magnetophone. Images of space and astronauts for Beck, Mus, Jethro Tull, Mike Oldfield and Vangelis album music.

In the ‘True Colors’ section (Cindy Lauper), the covers stand out for their color. Many are figurative works of art that could hang from a museum, while the chapter ‘What will be will be, whatver Will Be, Will Be’ (Doris Day) is represented for examples closer to abstract art. “Some used the adhesive resources that brought the mythical TDK tapes – explains Fraga -, with which he has achieved a constructivist composition in red and white. Then there are those who used the Burger King bag or the Fortune pack … ».

In ‘Emerged’ (Antonio Carlos Jobim), “gross” covers have been grouped but surprising for their improvisation load, naturalness … In principle, hurriedly made, without detail apparently, but its contemplation says a lot. Some have spelling offenses, surely intentional or not?, Like the reggae V-40 tape (instead of UB40) or that cedé of the tast with the title ‘Is the street?’.

Humor, irony and sarcasm are cited in ‘da da Da’ (Trio). Combicity more intelligence to summarize the content of the cassette that shows a close -up of Ronald Reagan for an album by the Dead Kennedys. Or that cedé of the mythical classical music seal Deutsche Grammophon where the classic work of art of his cover has been replaced by a photo of some soldiers in Iraq covering his ears before the imminent explosion of a bomb … to decorate ‘the consecration of the spring’ of Stravinski. It is understood that the author the musical composition seemed thunderous. Another ID of several artists simply collects as a title on white background ’16 reasons to be deaf. Collection 2001 ‘. And there is a tape with a drawing of one of the Ramones with a shirt of … the Fary!

‘Heroes’ (David Bowie) presents photos or drawings of musicians, such as Rockabilly compilation starring a very young Brian Setzer (Stray Cats) posing with his motorcycle or the cassette of ‘several’ with Lola Flores and a ‘Spain dances’ as a title. The ‘Psycho Killer’ of Talking Heads serves to gather covers that are not understood by themselves, but forming part of a set of cassettes or cedés, as if they had been exposed by a serial killer; There are the three albums of a compilation in which each of the cover is the third part of the head of a pig.

In ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ (Velvet Underground), there are copies of the authentic covers, such as the banana of the famous album of this band, which drawn, painted and written the titles of the songs in the yellow areas of the fruit, has been cut and attached to the plastic. Another artist has drawn the cover of the ‘great successes’ of the Chunguitos ‘Dame Veneno’, but changing their heads for those of Aznar, Bush and Osama Bin Laden, which appear giving palms.

The book has been sold in museums such as MoMA in New York, the Pompidou Center in Paris and also in the Guggenheim Bilbao. Fraga explains that the first edition was exhausted and made a second in which he added more examples, because upon learning of the existence of the book, many people wanted to add their own. “And if the second is exhausted, we will accept more for a third,” he warns.