Beck's Song Reader as Paper Art

Singer-songwriter Beck released a new collection of songs last month, interestingly not as an album, but as a book... it's called Song Reader. That's right, a book of sheet music and many pages of art. Beck's premise for not recording the songs himself was to encourage fans to experiment with their own versions. And if they wanted to share them... so much the better! They can do that at songreader.net. [edit: site no longer available]

Well-known typographer Jessica Hische created the cover art... an appealing design with graceful scrolls extending from the words.

Beck's avid fan, Ham, who runs Japanese fan site Hambeck, is not a musician. Nonetheless, she was inspired to contribute to the project by recreating the cover design via her paper cutting and quilling talent.

 Ham's art is extraordinary, as you can see in this time-lapse video.

 
Not only that... her mesmerizing motions are backed by the singing of one of the book's songs by Beck fan Max Miller, who is accompanied by Rachel Roth. The recording allowed Ham's work to be shared on Songreader.net... a win for all involved!

Ham brings the graphic design to life as we watch her steady fingers apply the tiniest dots of glue and position hand cut scrolls, letters, and musical notes. For the curious, Ham used an NT Cutter art knife and quick-drying Konishi glue.

As a music fan, I can completely appreciate her passion and the many hours devoted to this project.

Ham blogs at Hambeck.me
Thanks to Palomaria for alerting me to the video.