Simultaneously tranquil and lawless, the cover for Mark Van Hoen’s Playing With Time was the most dangerous-looking in the store, says US label Geographic North’s Farbod Kokabi. In 2003, my sophomore year of college, I would often skip less favourable courses for a fifteen minute train detour to Tower Records. Apart from the varied and unpredictable selection, I appreciated the anonymity of a big box store like Tower. It meant hours of cathartic, uninterrupted exploration in my burgeoning years of music discovery.

Given these circumstances, I developed a spirited capacity for justifying any price tag at the expense of ‘cool’. Cool, as defined by the fragile sensibilities of a nineteen-year-old graphic design student, is obscurity. And to my memory, the convenience of previewing obscure records in the early naughties was severely limited. So, at the risk of eviscerating my bank account, the burden of selection was placed, as it should be, on the sleeve.

Enter Mark Van Hoen’s Playing With Time (1998, Apollo) — an image of a closed-circuit television recording of a speedboat, and to my mind, the most dangerous looking album in the store. With so much product fighting for my attention, its initial banality is what interrupted my line of sight. From twenty feet away to twenty inches, it spoke perilous whispers, and I couldn’t stop listening. Something you rarely identify as a teenager when your reactions tend to sway more towards what the fuck, rather than why the fuck.

Jon Wozencroft’s photography and minimal typesetting, with all its uncertain intentions, stirred my imagination. All at once tranquil and lawless, capturing an instance within an instance — I couldn’t help but be suspicious. There was something to tug at here. Something worth being said. Something to study, rather than devour. This something became my responsibility. I was accountable. Tasked with imagining the music within by virtue of the boundless curiosity that adorned it. In kind, sparking a revolution in my mind and heart.

If inspiration is the sincerest form of education, what I learned from Mr. Wozencroft’s design for Mark Van Hoen’s Playing With Time is evident by the short time in which I ripped it off.
Geographic North

This Atlanta-based label was set up by Kokabi in 2008, inspired by subscription series and singles clubs. Its remit is not limited to one genre, but hops between electronic music, punk and noise, with a tendency towards experimental and avant-garde sounds. Aesthetically its minimalist with plenty of post-modernist reference points. “Ultimately it's our take on what [Jon] Wozencroft does for the Touch label and the cohesive nature of [German label] ECM's record covers,” says Kakabi.
Mark Van Hoen

London-born, US-based Van Hoen is an electronic musician whose work (under his own name as well as as a member of electro-shoegaze pioneers Seefeel and under monikers Locust and Autocreation) has made a great impression on the contemporary IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) scene. Predominantly using vintage analogue synthesisers and tape recorders, his drone-like soundscapes are both cerebral and hazy. You can hear his influence in Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and Autechre.













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