Russell Mills (artist)

Last updated

Russell Mills (born 1952, Ripon, Yorkshire, England) is a British artist. He has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins, [1] Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch Nails. [2]

Contents

As a recording artist, he has collaborated with musicians including David Sylvian, Ian McCulloch and Peter Gabriel. He has released three CDs with his recording project Undark, one of them on the British ambient label Em:t Records. The last, Pearl + Umbra, was released on Bella Union, to positive reviews.

Mills was Visiting Tutor (until 2012) at the Royal College of Art, [3] Visiting Professor at the Glasgow School of Art. [4]

Emergence as music packaging designer

In the 1980s, Mills began receiving commissions to design record album covers and associated packaging. Stylistically, his work at this time became abstract, abandoning figurative representation in favor of symbolic allusions. He regularly treated the canvas as a sculptural plane, with materials such as metals, powders, bones, feathers, beeswax, fabric, wires, animal skins and papers embedded in thick paints and pastes. Works of this period generally occupy the entirety of the canvas with little or no "negative space" left.

Notable album covers include:

An analysis of the symbolic meaning of the elements used to create the cover for Roger Eno's Between Tides appears in the 1999 book 100 Best Album Covers, edited by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell (of the design group Hipgnosis.)

Mills is also the co-author of the 1986 book "More Dark Than Shark" with Brian Eno, the book being a collection of interviews with Eno and Mills's artistic interpretations of the lyrics to songs off Eno's first four solo albums.

Work with Nine Inch Nails

Russell Mills worked with Nine Inch Nails in 1994–1997 and again in 2012–15.

In 1994, he was commissioned to create the entire visual world of The Downward Spiral , beginning with the artwork for the album's cover and booklet, and extending to all of the associated singles (including March of the Pigs and Closer to God ), the remix collection Further Down the Spiral , the 1997 video cassette compilation Closure , the 2004 Deluxe Edition and DualDisc re-releases of The Downward Spiral, (which was accompanied by several new Mills compositions downloadable from the Nine Inch Nails website), [5] and various promotional materials.

These interrelated works contain Mills's heaviest use of organic materials to depict a sense of fragility and decay. [6] Animal skeletons, sets of teeth, blood, feathers, and dead insects are liberally embedded in the canvases. In some pieces, materials have been affixed and then exposed to water or chemical elements, so that their decay is imprinted on the surface of the artwork.

In 2012, work began on the cover art for the album Hesitation Marks , released in 2013, and subsequently an art book called Cargo in the Blood, [7] [8] released in December 2015.

Advent of digital design in

From the later 1990s to the present, Mills' work has again evolved to a new style, made possible by the advent of computer design applications such as Photoshop. The "collage" aesthetic is still seen, but now in a virtual/digital form, with many abutting and overlapping semi-transparent images, often cropped into crisp, aligned rectangles.

Mills still uses hand-drawn or -painted imagery, but as often as not it is scanned into the computer and treated as another malleable collage element. Images of water and sky are frequently seen, and a cooler color palette often prevails (in contrast to an earlier reliance on earth tones).

Negative space is still a rarity in Mills' compositions. Many of the musicians who choose Mills as an illustrator compose music that is "ambient" to varying degrees. Many of the album covers visually reflect this, in that they can be viewed quickly for an overall emotional impression, while intense perusal reveals many painstakingly layered details.

Notable album covers from 1995 to the present include:

Music

In addition to soundtracking several multimedia exhibits (see below), Russell Mills has released two albums to date:

Both albums originated from Mills "collecting sounds" from musicians, many of whose albums he has illustrated. He then collaged the organic and electronic sounds into ambient pieces (with one or two vocal "songs" per album), with varying degrees of collaboration with the originating artists.

Featured contributors to Undark(aka "Undark One: Strange Familiar"):

Featured contributors to Pearl + Umbra:

Multimedia soundtracks

Still Moves | one
  • Between Two Lights [1994] – 20:48
  • Soundings [1995] – 15:29
  • Looming [1996] – 7:33
  • Measured in Shadows [1996-97] – 22:19
  • Still Moves [1999] – 17:45
  • Mantle (Sonic Boom Catalogue Edit) [2000] – 7:02
  • Mantle (Extended Edit) [2000] – 31:05
Still Moves | two
  • Republic of Thorns [2001] – 31:12
  • Cleave | Soft Bullets [2002] – 48:15

Related Research Articles

<i>The Downward Spiral</i> 1994 studio album by Nine Inch Nails

The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994, by Nothing Records in the United States and Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the self-destruction of a man from the beginning of his misanthropic "downward spiral" to his suicidal breaking point. The album was a commercial success and established Nine Inch Nails as a reputable force in the 1990s music scene, with its sound being widely imitated, and the band receiving media attention and multiple honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine Inch Nails</span> American industrial rock band

Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross. Reznor was previously the only permanent member of the band until Reznor made Ross an official member in 2016. The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreeing with TVT about how to promote the album, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992). The following albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), were released to critical acclaim and commercial success.

<i>Pretty Hate Machine</i> 1989 studio album by Nine Inch Nails

Pretty Hate Machine is the debut studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Frontman Trent Reznor sang and performed most of the instruments, also producing the album alongside Keith LeBlanc, John Fryer and Flood, with a few other contributors.

<i>The Fragile</i> 1999 album by Nine Inch Nails

The Fragile is the third studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as a double album by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on September 21, 1999. It was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and the English producer Alan Moulder, a longtime Reznor collaborator. It was recorded throughout 1997 to 1999 in New Orleans.

Mark Ellis, known by his professional pseudonym Flood, is a British rock and synthpop record producer and audio engineer. Flood's list of work includes projects with New Order, U2, Nine Inch Nails, Marc and the Mambas, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Sneaker Pimps, King, Ministry, The Charlatans, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Erasure, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Foals, a-ha, Orbital, Sigur Rós, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Killers, White Lies, Pop Will Eat Itself, Warpaint, EOB, and Interpol. His co-production collaborations have included projects with Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, and longtime collaborator Alan Moulder, with whom he co-founded the Assault & Battery Studios complex. In 2006, his work with U2 led to his sharing of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

<i>Further Down the Spiral</i> 1995 remix album by Nine Inch Nails

Further Down the Spiral is a remix album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It is the companion remix disc to the band’s second studio album, The Downward Spiral, and was released on May 29, 1995, in two editions, one denoted as Halo 10, and the other as Halo 10 V2, each containing a different set of tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March of the Pigs</span> 1994 single by Nine Inch Nails

"March of the Pigs" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their second studio album, The Downward Spiral (1994). It was released on February 25, 1994 as the album's lead single.

<i>Closure</i> (video) 1997 video by Nine Inch Nails

Closure is the first video album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on November 25, 1997. The double VHS set consists of one tape of live concert and behind-the-scenes footage from their Self-Destruct and Further Down the Spiral tours and one tape of music videos.

<i>The Pearl</i> (album) 1984 studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno

The Pearl is the second collaborative studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno, released in August 1984 by Editions EG and produced by Eno and Daniel Lanois in Hamilton, Ontario. The Pearl is similar to Budd and Eno's previous collaboration, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980), consisting mostly of subtly treated piano textures, but with more pronounced electronic treatments and nature recordings. The album has been well received by music critics, and is considered by some as a landmark work in ambient music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mellow Candle</span> Irish progressive folk rock band (1968–1973)

Mellow Candle was an Irish progressive folk rock band, active from 1968 to 1973. They released one studio album, Swaddling Songs, in 1972. A collection of demos and sessions for the album, recorded 1969–1971, was released in 1996 as The Virgin Prophet.

<i>Year Zero</i> (album) 2007 studio album by Nine Inch Nails

Year Zero is the fifth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Interscope Records on April 17, 2007. Conceived while touring in support of the band's previous album, With Teeth (2005), the album was recorded in late 2006. It was produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and was the band's first studio album since 1994's The Downward Spiral that was not co-produced by long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It was the band's last album for Interscope, following Reznor's departure the same year due to a dispute regarding overseas pricing.

Modwheelmood is an American electronic/alternative pop band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998 by Alessandro Cortini (who is also part of the Nine Inch Nails concert lineup and former Abandoned Pools guitarist Pelle Hillström.

The Outside Tour was a tour by the English rock musician David Bowie, opening in September 1995 and lasting over a year. The opening shows preceded the release of the 1. Outside album which it supported. The tour visited stops in North America and Europe.

<i>Ghosts I–IV</i> 2008 studio album by Nine Inch Nails

Ghosts I–IV is the sixth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by The Null Corporation on March 2, 2008. It was the band's first independent release following their split from longtime label Interscope Records in 2007. The production team included Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, studio collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, and contributions from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew, and Brian Viglione.

<i>The Slip</i> (album) 2008 studio album by Nine Inch Nails

The Slip is the seventh studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on May 5, 2008, digitally on the Nine Inch Nails website, and on CD on July 22 by The Null Corporation. It was their second release in 2008, following their sixth album Ghosts I–IV, released two months prior. The album was produced by frontman Trent Reznor with collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clodagh Simonds</span> Irish musician, songwriter and singer (born 1953)

Clodagh Simonds is an Irish musician, songwriter and singer. She was born in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland and raised and educated in Killiney, County Dublin.

"Something I Can Never Have" is the fifth track by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from the 1989 debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. According to Loren Coleman, the song deals with suicidal themes.

<i>Hesitation Marks</i> 2013 album by Nine Inch Nails

Hesitation Marks is the eighth studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on August 30, 2013, by The Null Corporation and distributed by Columbia Records in the United States and Polydor Records elsewhere. It was the band's first release in five years, following The Slip (2008), as well as their only release on Columbia. Like previous albums, the album was produced by frontman Trent Reznor alongside longtime collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. To date, this is the most recent Nine Inch Nails album to be co-produced by Moulder.

<i>Recoiled</i> 2014 remix album / EP by Coil and Nine Inch Nails

Recoiled is an EP by Coil and Nine Inch Nails described as "a compilation of Coil's unreleased work for Nine Inch Nails" and "outtakes from the remix sessions from Fixed, Closer to God and Further Down the Spiral". It was released on February 24, 2014, via British record label Cold Spring. It was released posthumously after the deaths of the two original Coil members, Peter Christopherson and John Balance. Danny Hyde, a former employee and engineer of Coil, later licensed the remixes to Cold Spring. The release is composed of variations of previously released remixes, which appeared on the albums Fixed, Further Down the Spiral and the "Closer to God" single.

<i>Not the Actual Events</i> 2016 EP by Nine Inch Nails

Not the Actual Events is the third extended play (EP) and tenth major release by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released physically on December 23, 2016, under Trent Reznor's own label The Null Corporation, while those who had pre-ordered received a download link a day early. The second Nine Inch Nails EP of original material following Broken (1992), it marks longtime collaborator Atticus Ross's first appearance as an official member of the band. The digital pre-orders included a "physical component" that was shipped in early March 2017. The EP is the first in a trilogy released in 2016–2018, preceding Add Violence (2017) and the band's ninth studio album Bad Witch (2018).

References

  1. ↑ Moira Jeffrey (12 March 2001). "When solo artists meet their match". Herald Scotland . Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  2. ↑ Will Hermes (24 September 1999). "The Fragile: Nine Inch Nails". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on 31 March 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  3. ↑ "Home". Rca.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "The Glasgow School of Art". Gsa.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "Russell Mills - NinWiki". Nin.wiki. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "Russell Mills Committere". Russellmills.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  7. ↑ "Russell Mills || media". Media.russellmills.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  8. ↑ "Nine Inch Nails and Russell Mills to publish art book". Completemusicupdate.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  9. ↑ "Still Moves | three, by Russell Mills and Mike Fearon". Slowfusesound.bandcamp.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  10. ↑ "RUSSELL MILLS | » Still Moves | One". Russellmills.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.