Birch Book: The fox and the tree

Last week I got my hands on a copy of the latest release from Paris based label Les Disques du 7eme Ciel and took a few photographs of the EP.
The release is a 6 track 10" vinyl by Birch Book and is housed in a recycled board gatefold sleeve complete with a version of the EP on CD, a woven patch and two art prints. As always I was given free reign on how the release should look, the only limitations being that it would be one colour printed on a recycled board and that the artist liked it!
I had been trying out a new illustration style for a while and felt that this release was a perfect partner for that style. The illustration style draws on Irish Celtic illustrations as well as Inuit folk art with a touch of psychedelia.

A sketchbook doodle of a bird with something of a fish about him

From the same sketchbook a detail from a drawing of a hare

…and from a few pages later my first go at drawing the fox

I loved the idea of one thing existing with in the space of another, this was partially triggered by the groups name Birch Book. I felt a link between the two words, a tree and an object of paper; the same thing manifesting in two different states. I loved the idea that a tree growing in a forest could already contain the essence of a book and one day metamorphose into that form when the conditions were right.
With this bubbling around in the back of my mind I started to doing the fox drawing. 

I wanted a sense of balance between the animal and vegetable and to include something of the tree within the fox and vice versa. This lead me to here…

and to here.

back cover of 10" vinyl

Front cover of CD version

Back cover of CD version

Side B vinyl label

Fox print detail

Tree ring print detail

Anyway if you want to listen to the tracks or pick up a copy then just pop over to the label's website.