Vision Eternel Interview For V13

Vision Eternel Interview For V13

Christopher Gonda, founder and editor of V13, recently interviewed Vision Eternel founder Alexander Julien. The interview was conducted between February 23-28, 2024, and covers extensively the artwork for the Deluxe Edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts. It also includes a segment answered by illustrator Michael Koelsch. It can be read here.

Since it is no longer hosted online, the complete interview is now presented here for archival purposes:

-When during Echoes From Forgotten Hearts‘ creative process did the concept for the artwork come to you?

The idea of offering new artwork for the Deluxe Edition re-issue of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts happened very early in the project. That was motivated by the fact that this extended play was never released properly (until now). To be accurate, the music was available digitally since February 14, 2015, but I had been struggling to secure a record deal for a physical version since September 2014. Having a physical edition was very important to me. As such, I chose not to promote the digital release as I waited for the physical edition to come. But it ended up taking a decade for that to happen!

Although I had been seeking record companies to release this extended play for physical release since September 2014, I did stop looking around January 2016. The numerous canceled plans and amount of rejection affected me, and I became even more depressed than I usually am, so I needed to shift my focus elsewhere. Once interest in releasing this material resurfaced, in August 2020, I immediately thought that I should present Echoes From Forgotten Hearts differently from its original 2014/2015 version. I wanted to treat it as a new release, not as a simple re-packaging of the same content. I wanted existing fans (who may have been familiar with the digital version) to be interested just as much as new folks discovering it for the first time. It was important for me that I offer something new and fresh; I wanted to give people a reason to check it out. Aside from the audio content, the visual presentation is the best way to achieve that.

Another reason why I wanted to offer a new artwork was because I felt that the original cover, designed by my at-the-time best friend, Jeremy Roux, no longer reflected the music that I was presenting. Vision Eternel has developed artistically since then and I felt that this release deserved better artwork. Allow me to justify that statement. Roux was an amazing designer, and he had worked on numerous visual projects for Vision Eternel over the years. His contributions were invaluable. But by that time, his heart was no longer in the project and I had to drag the artwork out of him. Roux’s original artwork was more or less representative of the concept we had discussed, and I did like it at the time, but it always felt rushed, forced, and without inspiration. It was also delivered less than a week before the digital release date, so I did not have time to consider other options.

When I was presented with the opportunity to release Echoes From Forgotten Hearts properly and in physical formats for the first time (and re-issue it digitally), I was eager to commission a new artwork that added a new dimension to the extended play.

-Who created the artwork and how did you come to use that artist? Did that artist work on any art besides the cover?

Michael Koelsch is the artist responsible for painting that incredible pulp artwork for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (Deluxe Edition). I discovered his work in April 2020, while looking for an illustrator to paint the cover artwork of Vision Eternel’s last extended play, For Farewell Of Nostalgia. I had reached out to dozens of artists, and commissioned three of them before-hand, none of which were able to get the look that I wanted. The cover artwork of that release was based on Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours album sleeve, so it had to have that sort of old-fashioned 1950s look, which I initially had difficulty describing to people. I later learned the proper terminology for that style of artwork; it is a mix of pulp and realism art. Most people simply call it pulp artwork nowadays though, but a good artist will have enough realism in his style to make the portraits look like the model.

The way that I discovered Koelsch was through the two artworks he had painted for The Criterion Collection. In 2000, he created the cover artwork for the digital video disc release of My Man Godfrey, which happens to be one of my favorite films. A year later, he created the cover artwork for the digital video disc release of The Blob. The Criterion Collection used his artwork when they re-issued The Blob on Blu-ray in 2013, but they chose to get another artist to provide (what I feel is an inferior) new artwork for the Blu-ray re-issue of My Man Godfrey. I think that was a mistake.

While researching Koelsch’s background and experience, I found that he had done such a huge amount of work, yet was not all that well-known. It would be impossible for me to detail a proper curriculum vitae within the confines of this interview, but he has done several hundreds of book covers and worked on video game box covers, film posters, billboards, and other album covers. Some of his music-related artworks were for the New York Philharmonic and Epitaph Records bands, like The Offspring, Down By Law, Pennywise, and Bad Religion. When I looked at his work, I could see that he had perfected the pulp artwork style, and it was authentic. It looked as if it had been painted during the 1940s-1960s. I cannot praise his work enough.

Koelsch painted a 16×9 landscape artwork between April 10 to 17, 2020, which was used as a gatefold cover for the front and back portions of Vision Eternel’s For Farewell Of Nostalgia. The whole of his painting, or portions of it, were also used on promotional flyers, business cards, and on the compact disc face and compact cassette stickers. 

For the cover artwork of the Deluxe Edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts, he painted another landscape artwork, between February 12 and March 4, 2022, but that one was unused (I will describe the reason later in this interview). He then painted a third landscape artwork, between April 26 and May 7, 2022, which was the one we selected to use as the front and back cover artwork of the Deluxe Edition of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts. The whole of this third painting, or portions of it, were also used on promotional flyers, postcards, compact cassette stickers, and the cover of the novella that accompanies the boxed set.

-What was the inspiration for the EP’s cover artwork? It’s very different from the original cover artwork from 2015. Is there a particular theme or narrative being displayed?

The new cover artwork for Echoes From Forgotten Hearts is based on a combination of two posters of one of my favorite films, Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. The background (the city landscape, sidewalk, and sky) is based on the film’s original 1931 promotional poster, while the portrait pose is taken from the film’s 1950 re-issue poster.

Other ideas had been considered during the development progress of the release, but because Echoes From Forgotten Hearts was originally composed and arranged as a score, and recorded for the soundtrack of a short film, I thought it was appropriate to base the new cover artwork on a movie poster. The artwork of the digital version from 2015 was also a nod to the 2009 film Moon, but that was less obvious. An element from that film and artwork was brought over into the Deluxe Edition artwork because I also wanted it to be paid tribute.

It was important to me that I be respectful of Chaplin in the manner in which I presented this new cover artwork. I did not want it to be an exact duplicate because that would have been disrespectful. I wanted it to be a tribute, much like what I had presented with the cover artwork of For Farewell Of Nostalgia, which was based on Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours. So I spent a few months, from October 2021 to January 2022, working on a mock-up for the artwork. I took the 1931 poster and expanded it, not by stretching it, but by re-creating other buildings to the left and right, sidewalk to the bottom, and clouds and sky to the top of the image in Photoshop. I transformed the portrait image into a landscape because I wanted Koelsch to be able to paint a 16×9 image that could be used as a gatefold cover.

One of the things that I did not know at the time, was the name of the artist who designed the film’s 1931 poster. I later found his name, Alvan Cordell “Hap” Hadley. I believe that it is most important to credit everyone involved in my projects, and as such, would have loved to mention Hadley in the extensive liner notes that accompany the release. And that is one thing that I deeply regret, but his name was unknown to me at the time. So I would like to take this opportunity to give him due credit here through this interview.

Another element on which I worked in the mock-up was replacing actress Virginia Cherrill’s face, which came through the clouds on the upper right portion of the 1931 poster, with a moon. That was to create a visual connection and bring over the concept of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts’ original 2014/2015 artwork, and pay tribute to Moon. There was something else that I was also trying to accomplish by replacing her face with the moon. When I super-imposed Chaplin’s figure from the 1950 poster onto the 1931-background mock-up, his head and eyes were already looking right up at the girl’s face in the sky. It all happened naturally like he was meant to be looking at her face. So when I posed for the picture (which was used in the mock-up sent to Koelsch), I looked up in the same direction, because I knew that I would be looking up at the moon on the finished artwork.

For the figure on the artwork, I wanted my pose to be similar to Chaplin’s on the film’s 1950 re-release poster. But, again, I did not want it to be a simple copy. I did not want to try to duplicate Chaplin’s Little Tramp character; I wanted it to be true to who I am, how I dress, and how I looked in 2014 when this music was composed and recorded. So I deliberately wore my clothes and stood in a pose similar to Chaplin’s, but one that came to me naturally. I also chose not to hold a cane. I tried to find something else to hold, but could not think of anything that added value to the portrait. Holding an instrument would have been out of context.

I did not think that the text style of the 1931 or 1950 posters would work well with the new artwork, so I spent a great deal of time looking for a suitable font. While watching the 1933 film The Little Giant, I noticed that Edward G. Robinson’s character was reading the November 1932 issue of Vanity Fair. I was intrigued by the magazine and upon researching its early history, was amazed by the cover artwork of their issues from the early 1930s. I loved the typography of those issues, which had “Vanity Fair” across the top and “People Humor Art Satire Politics Sports Stage Books” running down the left side. Since City Lights was released during that same era, I felt that it was an appropriate influence to blend into the artwork of the Deluxe Edition. After several weeks of searching for a suitable font, I finally came upon Town, a typeface designed by Jason Vandenberg at J Foundry.

To further pay tribute to Chaplin and be respectful of his work and estate, I sent a copy of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts’ compact cassette boxed set to the Chaplin Office / Roy Export, which administers the Charlie Chaplin archives and copyrights in Paris, France. I included a card that explained why City Lights was so important to me and that the cover artwork of this extended play was an homage to Chaplin. The eighty-page novella that comes with the boxed set also describes, in great detail, the making of this release, including the development and design of the artwork. So his estate had that as well to understand the care and thought that was put into this project.

I cannot possibly convey in words the pride and excitement that I felt when I received a City Lights postcard from the director of the Chaplin Office, with a wonderful note written on the back about my release. He also wrote that my boxed set would be kept in their archives along with other music contributions. That alone made the decade of work on this release worthwhile!

-Did you have to give Michael Koelsch guidance for a specific look, or did he have full free range?

I had worked with Michael Koelsch on Vision Eternel’s previous cover artwork, for For Farewell Of Nostalgia, so I knew that I needed to present a solid mock-up from which he could work. And because I am not a visual artist, it is very difficult for me to express what I want with words. I have a definite idea of what I want but do not have a vast vocabulary of art terms, so a mock-up is also important from my end. Therefore, Koelsch had a good idea of what I wanted as far as composition and content.

The reason why I wanted to work with Koelsch again on this release was because I am a devoted fan of his work. He has mastered the pulp art style and that is what I wanted for the cover artwork of Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (as I had with For Farewell Of Nostalgia). I wanted both cover artworks to have an obvious visual connection. But I made the mistake of not mentioning that to him, assuming that he knew that I wanted his usual pulp style. That created a bit of a problem and ended up delaying the release.

Instead of painting a pulp artwork from my mock-up, Koelsch created a more gritty, art deco illustration. I later found out that he had gone out of his comfort zone to learn and use new techniques and achieve an appearance closer to the style and texture of my mock-up and City Lights’ 1931 poster. Art Deco was not what I wanted, and the grit was unintentional in my mock-up and was the result of using images of varying resolutions. I wanted the artwork to be more painterly.

When Koelsch and I regrouped a month later to revise the artwork, several changes needed to be made to achieve a more pulpy look. We had to create a new mock-up and a second painting was to be made. It was Koelsch’s idea to remove all of the clouds in the sky, make the moon much larger, and alter the skyscrapers and buildings’ shapes. I was initially skeptical when he proposed those changes during a telephone conversation, but after seeing his revised mock-up, it all made sense. His second painting still had a small element of Art Deco, from the base composition of the buildings, but the overall feel was more realistic, painterly, and pulp. So Koelsch had an important role in improving the composition of the artwork and getting it to the look for which I was looking.

-Did Michael Koelsch get a chance to listen to any of the music before creating the artwork?

I always let the designers and illustrators that I hire hear the music for which they are making artwork. It seems like an important element to share with them. However, I know that my music is not commercial. It is rather limited in accessibility. I would love to say that Koelsch adores my music, but I think that he probably found it interesting at best. 

Most of the people with whom I have worked have not been fans of Vision Eternel’s work. But that may be partly because I like to work with artists based on what they can bring to the project, and not because they are established in this particular field of music. I do not listen to ambient music, so my influences come from other directions. I, therefore, approach visuals for my music differently from other people in this genre. This is not necessarily conscious or deliberate. I am not setting out to be drastically different. I just have a vision that is influenced by different elements from the majority of ambient artists.

With all of that said, I know that Michael Koelsch heard the music for both For Farewell Of Nostalgia and Echoes From Forgotten Hearts before creating each artwork. But, from what I recall of our lengthy conversations, he took on the projects more so because he was a fan of Frank Sinatra and Charlie Chaplin and liked that I was trying to incorporate those old-fashioned tributes in my modern work. Koelsch’s influence was the same as mine in this case, which was paying tribute to Charlie Chaplin and City Lights, rather than being influenced by the music.

-What kind of mediums did he use to create the artwork? We’d love to know how the artwork was created.

I reached out directly to Michael Koelsch to answer this question. Here is what he provided:

Working on the cover for Alex, while I can’t exactly recreate the actual style of the old Chaplin posters, I can emulate some of the style with the way they did brushstrokes and work on similar surfaces as what they used in the past. I mostly paint in acrylics, but I do use colored pencils, pastels, and the airbrush. For Echoes From Forgotten Hearts, we used Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights poster for inspiration, the only reference we had was from the poster, which was most likely a lithograph. So, I tried to mimic that look by putting a base of colors and shapes down in acrylic on an illustration board. I worked on top of that with colored pencils to get that “lithography feel” as well as rounded paint brushes and acrylic paint.

The moon was done similarly, just with more brush work and less pencil. To complete the background, I did the spotlights with the airbrush and some acetate to keep a little bit of a hard edge. Because we wanted the figure fully rendered as opposed to the silhouette (of Chaplin), I chose to give more dimension to the spotlighting and moon. The City Lights poster is very flat and two dimensional, whereas we wanted a little more rendered look to our final, but still keeping it in that genre.

The figure, based on photos taken by Alex, was rendered with acrylics hand-painted with round brushes. Because of the need to maybe have to move the figure around, I had to keep him on a separate layer, whereas most of my paintings are done on one surface. Thankfully, I’ve been dabbling more in Photoshop with my Cintiq tablet trying to get traditional textures out of that digital format. It’s not always successful, but with this project, I happily was able to pull off some nice painterly textures. I brought out some of the “light” from the city behind the figure and in the light blue of the night sky, I was able to add to my already hand-painted work to bring out more subtle brush strokes and texture.

And to back up a bit, before all this fun painting gets done, I begin collecting references and had Alex do a photoshop in the Chaplin pose so we could stay as close to the inspiration as possible. Once I have that scrap, I assemble it in Photoshop and draw from that. To keep this one on point and likenesses true, I sometimes tend to use tracing paper and get the figure looking perfect. Once I have that sketch where I like it, I put it back into Photoshop where I drop in some underpainting (general color). Once approved by the client, in this case, I just had to please Alex, I printed it out on my over size Epson printer and mounted it to an illustration board. When the painting is where I am happy with it, I scan it, drop it back into Photoshop, and work on the Cintiq.

With the demand of using images on multiple formats, it’s put a strain on the illustrator to accommodate for things back in the old days they didn’t have to worry about. So, thanks to Photoshop, this helps with that challenge and makes it truly a “multi-media” project.

-Did other artists work on artwork for this release? Do you plan to work with Michael Koelsch again?

I would love to work exclusively with Michael Koelsch for all of Vision Eternel’s future cover artworks. I enjoy long-term relationships and that they bring a sort of unity or familiarity to creative works. For example, when Limp Bizkit has a new album, it is likely that Wes Borland painted its cover artwork. My favorite director, Alfred Hitchcock, also built up a crew of technicians with whom he worked for most of the 1950s and early 1960s. With Michael Koelsch and Carl Saff (who was the mastering engineer for the two most recent Vision Eternel releases), I am starting to build up this team.

Aside from myself working on the layouts, other people did contribute to Echoes From Forgotten Hearts, and they are artists with whom I have often worked. Many pictures and images by Jeremy Roux were used throughout the eighty-page novella, mainly from the release’s original 2014/2015 period, but also from years prior while working on other Vision Eternel projects. Roux was once part of that team mentioned previously, but he and I have drifted apart over the years.

There are also a great deal of pictures and paintings by Rain Frances, and not only in the novella. Frances painted an original artwork that is used on the stickers of the bonus compact cassette, Lost Misfortunes: A Selection Of Demos And Rarities (Part Three). She has been painting abstract artworks for the Lost Misfortunes series since 2017 and has also painted and drawn a series of realistic artworks for Vision Eternel’s annual Valentine’s Day Exclusive since 2020. Each year on Valentine’s Day, I make it a point to release something by Vision Eternel. I usually try to aim for an extended play release, but when that cannot happen, I offer an unreleased song from the band’s archive for free download. Frances is also part of Vision Eternel’s artistic team and I hope to continue working with her.

-When people look at this EP’s cover artwork, what do you want them to see and think? Will it affect listeners’ perception?

If I may be bold, I never think about other people’s reactions when it comes to creating content for Vision Eternel, be it musical or visual. That is not to say that I am immune to the public’s praise or criticism once that material is out. But I always strive to present something original and of high quality, and I never compromise my art for the sake of pleasing an audience. I also do not make music on-demand or by request. It has to come from within. That is because Vision Eternel started in 2007 as a way to document a heartbreak. It was a very personal project and has remained so after seventeen years. What I present with Vision Eternel is my open heart; the pain, the loneliness, the solitude, the depression, and the heartbreaks I have suffered. I am telling my story, so changing anything to fit an audience would be sacrificing my personal and artistic integrity.

When I prepare the artwork that accompanies Vision Eternel’s releases, I am only thinking of pleasing myself and fulfilling ideas of designs that I noted and saved over the years. I am also prepared for people to be taken off-guard when they see the artwork and hear the music together… there may be a failure of the recognition system in their mind as that happens. Humankind has associated specific styles of artwork for each music genre, and come to expect an album’s supposed sound based on its visual presentation. I know of many record companies that uphold and proliferate that stereotype by making sure that all of their releases look and sound identical, from one artist to the next. They do so by using the same art designer and mastering engineer across their catalogs. Another issue is that many artists struggle to find an original identity and simply copy that of their peers or influences, thereby reinforcing the pattern.

Here is an interesting side-story that relates to my band’s visual presentation. A record company once dropped Vision Eternel after the owner discovered that I wore fedora hats. He opined that I “look like a loser” and was convinced that his fan base would not accept a band whose artist pictures featured a man wearing such a hat. But that is how I dress every day; it was not a put-on for the photo shoot. I did not want to change myself for this record company that forced bands into honoring the stereotypes of music genres (such as black metal bands expected to wear corpse paint; rappers expected to wear gold chains; country bands expected to wear western hats and pointy leather boots.)

I am a strong individualist and did not want to present Echoes From Forgotten Hearts (or Vision Eternel as a whole) in that manner. So folks may be confused when they come across the artwork for that release (or past Vision Eternel releases). They may expect to hear something else, and oftentimes their opinion will be swayed by style and genre tags imposed by critics or playlist creators. It would also be impossible to suit everyone’s preconception because so many varying genres and styles have been affixed to Vision Eternel over the years, most of which are types of music to which I do not listen. Vision Eternel sort of falls between genres. And I would like people to approach my music from that perspective; that it is not just one genre, but a bit of several. For that reason, I do not look at my release artworks as needing to fit or represent imposed genres. I am simply trying to tell my story and make sure that it is representative of who I am. When one looks at and listens to Vision Eternel, I want one to feel that this is how I am in person, that there is honesty, and that this is how my sorrow sounds.

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