About the album:
“Awaken | Abandon | Adapt” is Standing in the Colour's third release. The EP delivers three new songs from the band’s unique quarry of experimental rock.
True to form, the songwriters have composed seamless arrangements out of everchanging beats, riffs and intensities — each track hewn from a single larger vision. Unlike past releases, this one contains glowing deposits of electronic effects that give the music an otherworldly dimension.
About the band:
Standing in the Colour was formed in 2009 in Wichita, Kansas. The trio comprises Mike Gangwere on drums and electronics; his wife and bassist, Erin Gangwere; and Erin’s brother, guitarist Mark Green. They are known for using core tools of the rock genre to excavate layers of progressive metal, electronic and ambient styles.
Standing in the Colour was formed in 2009 in Wichita, Kansas. The trio comprises Mike Gangwere on drums and electronics; his wife and bassist, Erin Gangwere; and Erin’s brother, guitarist Mark Green. They are known for using core tools of the rock genre to excavate layers of progressive metal, electronic and ambient styles.
About the artwork (Mike):
Standing in the Colour's album art provides a valuable companion piece to the listening experience. The cover tells the EP's origin story and offers a conceptual gateway to understanding the music. At the site where the album was written, the band discovered a three-sided stone with unusual properties and obvious numerical significance. Its coloration echoes the dichotomies present throughout the music: darkness and light, mass and weightlessness, momentum and reflection.
Standing in the Colour's album art provides a valuable companion piece to the listening experience. The cover tells the EP's origin story and offers a conceptual gateway to understanding the music. At the site where the album was written, the band discovered a three-sided stone with unusual properties and obvious numerical significance. Its coloration echoes the dichotomies present throughout the music: darkness and light, mass and weightlessness, momentum and reflection.
Standing in the Colour’s latest work, like the stone, is a singular piece shaped by tremendous forces, processes and time. “Awaken | Abandon | Adapt” exudes the energy of its creators, levitating the group’s craft to a higher plane of creativity.
The album was released Friday, December 13, 2019.
About the photograph (Mike):
The album art features a two-toned triangular stone that begged to be photographed but posed some difficulties. Being primarily a graphic designer, photographing this object was a bit outside of my wheelhouse, and some experimentation needed to happen.
The album art features a two-toned triangular stone that begged to be photographed but posed some difficulties. Being primarily a graphic designer, photographing this object was a bit outside of my wheelhouse, and some experimentation needed to happen.
Firstly, I needed the stone to stand on its own. To capture the face of the stone I needed the lighting to be set and the stone to be upright and flat with the camera. I tried several different stands, finally settling on a football tee. Secondly, I needed to capture the shadow of a floating stone, which proved to be a bit more difficult. The physical stone weighs in at 12 pounds, so holding it absolutely still, with an outstretched arm was somewhat awkward and tiring. But after some variations in lighting, I got what was needed. Thirdly, since the stone is split light and dark, I couldn't decide beforehand on a light or dark background, so all photos were shot on both, which proved to be valuable during editing.
Ultimately, I ended up capturing the best shadow on the light background, and liked elements of the dark background. The photos of the stone on the stand were the cleanest and clearest. The stone was precisely cutout and merged onto shots of blank backgrounds without the stone. So, at the end of the process, several pieces from several photos were comped together, creating one seemingly simple photo.
Album Artwork
Artwork produced and edited by Mike Gangwere.
Promotional video
Video produced and edited by Travis Krause.
About the video (Travis):
I was provided with the album artwork Photoshop file, and needed to model the rock in Cinema 4D to get the cinematic shots that I was after, and that worked together with the music. Once the rock was modeled, I worked with light and refined the model to get a good silhouette and defined depths.
I was provided with the album artwork Photoshop file, and needed to model the rock in Cinema 4D to get the cinematic shots that I was after, and that worked together with the music. Once the rock was modeled, I worked with light and refined the model to get a good silhouette and defined depths.
From there I needed to add the texture to make the rock noticeable as the one from the cover. I used several cameras to project texture on the rock. This allowed me to get shots from various angles and have complete coverage with texture. I added volumetric lights and a bit of wind to give a sense of atmosphere.
I wanted the camera to move slowly, so that it would add to the teasing of the record release. I ended up rendering out longer takes than I needed so that in compositing I would have a little bit of tail on the shots to speed ramp into the next one. This helped convey the dark undertones of the music, and kept the viewer engaged. There were only three shots, but the editing makes it feel like several more.
When the individual shots were rendered out of Cinema4D, I took them into after effects and began chopping them up and timing them out to the music. I wanted to get a basic edit down before fully compositing them. The addition of color correction, noise, and blur helped to tighten up the individual shots.
With the individual shots composited, I worked on tightening the edit. Speed ramping into cuts, blurs across edits, etc. This included compositing, and color grading the teaser to be cohesive and get the dark and moody tones conveyed in the teaser track. The final touches were going back and adding lens effects, noise, blurs, speed ramping, and animating the type to live over the shots.
