Before we turn to dust
Junipa Gold, Demo Tape Session und Tape Face Poster #4
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from YouTube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationFrom sketch to stillness – a meditative journey toward the Tape Face #4 poster for Junipa Gold.
The fourth demo tape session at LITTLE BIG BEAT STUDIOS. featured Junipa Gold. A band that doesn't impose itself. That withdraws. And then, if one allows it, plays right into the heart.
A few days before the session, I met Fabio, Sascha, and Mia for an interview—online, via Zoom. What immediately fascinated me was how different their musical backgrounds are. Mia has a fondness for delicacy and poetry. Fabio and Sascha tend to lean toward grungy, harder sounds. What seems contradictory on paper comes together in their music to form something unique.
Before We Turn to Dust
The song on which the poster is based is more than just a song.
Mia wrote “Before we turn to dust” in 2019, when the news was filled with images of burning forests in the Amazon. An article titled “The lungs of the planet are on fire” was the trigger for the text.
“The forest is my place of power,” she says. “Seeing the effects there breaks my heart.” She continues: “Nevertheless, I believe that in the end we will lose against Mother Nature. Some virus will probably wipe us out, and the earth will finally be able to recover from us...”
Life is a tape.
As the name “Tape Face Poster” suggests, the underlying concept is based on portraying Demo Tape artists’ faces artfully using a “tape line.” However, this is not the case with this poster—after an in-depth sketching phase, I decided on a circle as its motif.
A tape that leads out of the cassette and returns back in – inspired by the song “Before We Turn to Dust” and the Buddhist wheel of life.
A poster about transience. About the now. About what cannot be rewound.
I drew the circle by hand, made it out of wood, and printed it on my 60-year-old printing press—with all its little bumps and breaks. Perfect in its imperfection.
It begins with “TURN TO DUST” and ends with “BEFORE WE” – or vice versa. The circle can be read in both directions. Like life itself. The circle represents the path we walk. Unfolding, away from entanglement. Every day, every hour, every second, immortalized on magnetic tape, unchangeable.
And that matched with Junipa Gold: a band that lives entirely in the moment – and takes us right there with them.
«Nevertheless, I believe that in the end we will lose against Mother Nature.»
– Mia
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from YouTube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationFrom lead typesetting to signature – Tape Face #4 poster for Junipa Gold takes shape at the Letterpress Studio.
The Demo Tape Sessions The Demo Tape Sessions shine a spotlight on exceptional talent. It takes not only musical ability, but also courage to perform a studio recording in front of an audience and with cameras rolling. Because, as mentioned, the magic happens in the moment—and there's no rewinding.
Genau das prägt meine Arbeit mit Menschen, in Coachings und Kreativprojekten: Selbst wenn wir das grosse Ganze nicht kontrollieren können, lässt uns das Leben allows us to actively shape every day, every decision, and every encounter.
I am grateful that I can bring this attitude to the demo tape sessions with LITTLE BIG BEAT STUDIOS.
Thank you, Junipa Gold.
For your music.
For your open-mindedness.
For your trust.
And thank you to our partners who make this platform possible:
VP Bank, Sennheiser, RTM Industries
and Little Big Beat LBB Association.
Junipa Gold between letterpress and recording studio
Who are you? What do you see?
During the session itself, I started an experiment during the break.
A white sheet of paper.
An empty tape.
I invited people to pull the tape out of an empty cassette and design it freely: abstract, concrete, playful, serious. Then I asked them:
What do you see? Who are you? What resonates with you?
The circle resembles a face—perhaps that of the moon, perhaps that of the Earth itself. And it reminds us: Life is now. And it is finite.