Columbo

Bruno Major’s third album Columbo is a collection of songs written in the years after a dramatic car crash. He reflects on his existence as a performer, relationships old and new, and time itself. Initial concepts were based on the mechanical and decorative beauty of old clocks. Using a photo taken immediately after the crash as starting point, something wrecked and melancholic is broken down and reformed into a new artwork. Much like with songwriting, memories of the event are revisited as abstract iterations.

After splitting the photo by colour and depth into twelve parts (one for each song on the album), the layers were laser cut from a range of metals and plastics, then stacked together to recreate the orginal image. The stark scene of a crashed car is then reimagined, the layers shuffled into one of infinite possible configurations; a new moment of reflection. Individual pieces were used for single releases and also animated, representing this abstract clockwork concept in each of the songs’ lyric videos.

To Let A Good Thing Die

The artwork for the second album began with illustrations of the solar system’s complex orbital movements with radial lines showing the position of the planets on different dates. This was followed by a series of tinted photograms, made using assorted meterials, a desk lamp and chemical processes. The album cover itself was generated by inputting each planet’s rate of orbit into After Effects and tracing their changing positions between the day of Bruno’s birth and the album’s release date. This graphic was etched onto acetate, exposed as a monochromatic photogram and then digitally coloured.

Various animated renditions were created for social media and streaming platforms. The album was also released on CD and 12” Vinyl, which feature scale representaions of the eight planets, a series of codes and the lyrics in a radial layout on the inner wallet.

A Song For Every Moon

Bruno’s debut album is a collection of songs recorded, produced and released each month for a year. The hand drawn artwork features original symbols for the twelve Gregorian months which encircle a globe as it orbits the sun. Each symbol is an original, instinctive representation from a northern European point of view. January, the grid. June, the high sun. September, new directions. November, memory and projection. And so on...

A slice of this graphic accompanied each single with its release date in code before the whole album was revealed on CD and 12” Vinyl. Credits appear on the back and the concentric ring lyrics on the inner wallet line up with their symbol on the disc’s labels.

Bruno Major Tour Posters

With touring being about journeys, places and culture, the source material is often map based, while each city on the bill has its own original icon. A Song For Every Moon month symbols reappear along with coded dates. The restrained colour palettes allow for economical reproduction of collectible screen prints, risographs and clothing.

Rob Shuttleworth

Columbo

To Let A Good Thing Die

A Song For Every Moon

Bruno Major Tour Posters