We're very excited to be able to announce our first two releases will be from two of my favourite Swedish artists: Lisa Bouvier and Lost Summer Kitten. Lisa's EP is chock full of cracking energetic pop songs; Lost Summer Kitten have a delightful EP of downtempo wintery songs. Both will be released in February at the same time as cassettes from two of my current favourite UK artists - one are indiepop legends from the potteries, the other closely connected to a band who have made my favourite album of 2010... we'll be announcing names shortly, along with details of our launch party. We'll be showcasing all four artists, there'll be cakes and some indiepop tunes after to dance well into the night.
Prototype #1
This weekend I've been playing around with the design for the cassette sleeves, having received a stash of lovely 100% recycled manilla card. The goal was to hand make all the cassettes and stay away from messy glues, so the origami skills honed during my childhood have come in rather handy. The results are above. There's still things to develop - we'll have the Fika logo on the front and back (once we get this back from our wonderful Swedish designer) and I've a few ideas to refine the box a touch further. The cover art will stay as a slip in, colour, square photo, though I'm tempted to go down a gloss route rather than the matte I've used above. We'll see.
The on-cassette artwork still has a little way to go as I experiment with various acrylic paints and permanent markers. The "a" proves very difficult to cut out and stencil from card, so I'll look into getting a sturdier perspex stencil made up, which should give us a more reliable and slightly neater result. Having said that, I do like the idea that the above is a little diy, a little messy and very individual - each cassette will have their own flaws. Remember, we're making these by hand; and remember, that our artists have painstakingly written and recorded their music with endless care and attention - we're not into shiny, over produced "perfect" sounding stuff here.
Next step will be to select cassette colours from the rainbow available below. Any preferences folks? Should every artist have their own colour, or should every release come with a range of colours?
Fika Recordings
Welcome to Fika Recordings! We're an indiepop cassette label, launching our first releases in February 2011. Keep an eye on the website for details. Additionally, we'd love to hear from you if you're in a band, if you're a web designer, illustrator, graphic designer, or just fancy sitting in a pub in north-east London helping us put together tapes over a pint of bitter.