The Cold Smoke Collection by Synapse

2D • Music • posted on Apr 28, 2006

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Description

One for Nigel aka Naichan! In the 80s (before moving to Japan) he was a member of ZBB (Zircon & The Burning Brains) a trio of sonic experimentalists which also comprised the Freeman brothers (who much later formed Endgame with myself). In mid-2000 I offered to illustrate a retrospective CD compilation of choice ZBB material from the 80s entitled Cold Smoke. These three photomontages appeared in my Renderosity gallery back in 2001 but I decided to show them again, altogether in one upload with a subtle pseudo-greyscale tint :-) The idea behind the bizarre band name was that Zircon represented the sonic equipment while The Burning Brains were the human band members. My intention was to merge human anatomy - my own nailbitten hands, ears and mouth - with electrical parts such as microphones and phono leads, to reflect the often organic quality of ZBB's industrial/avant-garde creations. So I made good use of my Epson scanner! I also illustrated a second compilation CD entitled Embers along the same lines. Since the two CDs were issued, ZBB enjoyed a temporary revival when Nigel revisited his old UK haunts in August 2004 - ZBB and Endgame also cross-pollinated into The Zircon Game, a four-headed entity which unleashed a bewildering melange of sound! Thank you for taking a look and your feedback is always appreciated :-)

Comments (21)

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LillianaSapphire

2:36AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Looks excellent!!!!

bluestream

2:41AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

EXTREM COOL!!!

rudiruth

3:06AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Very creative work!

ARTWITHIN

3:38AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Wonderful and surreal! I see how this fits the avant-garde music so well. Thanks for sharing the information on the band as well. Hope you stopped biting your nails since then Jim. ;DDD

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Synapse

3:41AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

I'm afraid not, sorry :P

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crrunchyfrog

4:09AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Mmmmm, nails. If I haven't already let you know enough, I absolutely LOVE this (your work in general too of course L). Seriously cool, and original as always! Thank you so much for sharing my friend huuuuugest hugs xxx

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Naichan

5:02AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

This is one of my very favourite works by you, and not just because it was made for our CD :-) This is actually so much better than the printed cover, it's darkness is so saturated. And of course, it perfectly suits the mood and content of the music and the time and impoverished conditions under which it was made. It's almost as if you were there yourself, it's uncanny! Thanks again for this, and for taking the trouble to remake this revised version. :-)

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Synapse

5:10AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

I agree about the printed cover Nigel, I don't think the B/W photocopier the lads had at the time of issue quite did it justice - now they have a colour laser copier, any further reprints should look far better! I must admit I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when some of those 80s sessions took place, but I was a mere schoolkid at the time ;-)

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erlandpil

5:22AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Coll image with good work erland

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cbender

5:29AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

those are wicked... it's really cool work... especially with all those cords... and the body parts... something inbetween strange and fascinating... there seems to be life... living hands... living sound... some type of android here... connected to some music-machine... really cool stuff!!! and brilliantly done!

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SoulSearcherr

8:25AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

wicked work..and freaking me out a lil..lol

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NekhbetSun

9:45AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Anthropomorphically awesome !!!!

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zoren

10:08AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

interesting concept art....this also reminds me of the old style telephone operator.

greggbie

11:29AM | Fri, 28 April 2006

Freaky but very clever... I wish you could tell me how you did this?

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bevchiron

12:39PM | Fri, 28 April 2006

I think we can let you off for biting your nails when you create something as amazing as this with them! This is so brilliant I'm quite speechless so I'll just have to sit here & drool instead of saying anything useful! ; D

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Synapse

9:28PM | Fri, 28 April 2006

@greggbie, it was all in Photoshop, scanning my hands wrapped in the leads, scanning my ear and mouth etc. and then blending the bits together seamlessly. I also made use of KPT Goo here and there to warp things around. It helped that I was working in greyscale so I only had to concern myself with matching adjacent tones of grey, not colours (I only used the colour tint for this repost). My use of Photoshop dates back to January 1994 at art college so all that time has given me a lot of experience to refine my skills :-)

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