Andy Warhol
Giant Size $1.57
(Published by Billy Klüver, 1963. Limited edition of 75 copies signed by Andy Warhol and numbered. LP jacket is an original hand silkscreen over a spray painted background)

« Before becoming an art piece, this lp is an exhibition catalogue.The lp is made of interviews for the group show “The Popular Image” at the Washington Museum of Modern Art from the April, 18th to June 2nd. On side One are interviews by Jim Dine, George Brecht, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, John Wesley and Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg on side Two.
Originally the record came in a sleeve and an exhibition catalogue. During and/or after the show (there is no record about the exact release) Küver asked the two artist Andy Warhol and Jim Dine to produce record covers for the remaining vinyls from the show. The lp cover happen to be among the very first Pop art pieces by Warhol. »
 

Jean Dubuffet
La Fleur de Barbe
(Published by Galleria del Cavallino, Venise, 1961. Limited edition of 20 copies signed and numbered with an original little spiral drawing by Dubuffet. The cover is an original lithograph by Dubuffet)

« Jean Dubuffet had no knowledge about music. No knowledge about what was dodecaphonic, electronic, serial nor concrete music. With self made tools and instruments, Dubuffet was looking for the roots of rudimentary and elementary music. This peace of “Musique Brut” is also part as an Lp included in the box set published the same year. »
 

Miles Davis
Copenhagen Live, part of ‘Mati & The Music’
(This Miles Davis album has been released for the first time with the book “Mati & The Music”, published in 2012 by Editions 213/Paris, in an edition of only 500 copies)

« The band (Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and of course Miles Davis) were touring Europe and practicing new tracks for the up coming album ‘Bitches Brew’ which was going change the history music.
Mati Klarwein and Miles Davis knew each other well back in late 60’s and Miles asked Mati a painting for the cover of the new album he was going to release. Mati Klarwein was a music lover and did many famous record covers all published in the book. »
 

Albrecht/d & Joseph Beuys
Performance at the ICA London 1. Nov. 1974
(Samadhi Records, 1976. Limited edition of 99 signed and numbered)

« Live performance by the Artist. This is the famous limited edition. Silkscreen cardboard including an original photograph tipped on cardboard. Both artist signed. »
 

Rodarte
The Thing Quarterly / Issue 24
(Self published, 2015. Limited edition of 1500 copies)

« Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy participated to the issue n°24 of “The Thing Quartely”. The sleeve and record features imagery taken from a short film “Aantemi” released by Mulleavys in 2010. Music is scored by the experimental punk group No Age on both side. »

What did Miles Davis, Salvador Dali, Jackie Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein, Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary and Brigitte Bardot have in common? Mati Klarwein, the painter who realized the mythical LP sleeves for ‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘Live Evil’ (Miles), ‘Abraxas’ (Santana) and so many others like Jimi Hendrix, Earth Wind and Fire, the Lats Poets, Jackie McLean, George Duke, Hermeto Pascoal, Eric Dolphy, Jon Hassell, Muddy Waters and Jerry Garcia… His colorful paintings have been used for numerous LPs, across all types of musical genres. They are a testimony of his totally special link to music, as underlined it the splendid book published in 2012 by Antoine de Beaupre : Mati and The music, a sort of “catalogue raisonné” about an unreasonable artist!

Mati Klarwein was born on April 9th, 1932, in Hamburg. He was from a family of artists : his father was an architect of the Bauhaus and his mother, an opera singer. But when the Nazis took power, the family had flee to Israel. During the post-war years, the young man settled in Paris, where he crossed path with Fernand Léger, Salvador Dali and Ernst Fuchs. They would become three pillars for his future works. At that time, he even tried jazz with Boris Vian, a writer and trumpet player, before crossing the Atlantic. In New York, Mati Klarwein added Abdul to his name, in support of the Palestinians. In the Mecca of jazz, he became known for being at the heart of the “flowery revolution”. He became an icon of the hippy generation by illustrating some of the most famous records of their most emblematic period. “I take nothing when I paint. When I am on drugs, I become really hot and I prefer to leave for nightclubs. On the other hand, I find most of my ideas when I am broken up well! Speaking about drugs can be as interesting as speaking about sex. Everything depends on who is expressing themselves. William Burroughs or Nancy Reagan.” Explicit lyrics.

The fact remains that the eminently sensory paintings of Mati Klarwein, between hallucinated surrealism and psychedelic naturalism, make spring kaleidoscopic colors, mythological characters and incredible landscapes, a vision of the world fed by the nature which he appreciated through his numerous trips the world over. During one of his journeys, he discovered Deia, a village nested in the nature of the Balearic Islands where, after several stays, he chose to settle down while the world was turning itself to other trends : yuppie, the Wall Street trader. That is where he decided to live, out of this world, without ever stopping painting, accompanied by his ghetto blaster, organizing hallucinated parties, where percussions became an invitation to shaman trances. He died there on March 7th, 2002.

A song for your trip…