36 hours. Spent in the best way possible for me. I had so much fun working on this project. When Takashi reached out to me i was more than honored to take on the job. I have been a fan of Otus for quite some time. Since their US debut on Six Feet Under Records years back. I was not only excited to hear the long anticipated material, but to have been bestowed the task of coming up with the visual identity of the album.
The name itsself “Otus” is a translation of “owl”. At first i was entirely sold on coming up with art that directly translates the band’s name. But after reading their lyrics and talking to Takashi I realized we had something more here than just a image to go with the name. A lot of the lyrical content grapples with concepts of death, depression, existentialism, and everything in between that. The title “Murk” means “darkness of humanity, ugliness of mankind”.
I had this image of a Siamese owl. A “Southern White Face” owl to be specific perched on a branch holding human remains within its talons and beaks.
Coupled sashes with bells and chimes. I occasionally add little bells to things harking back to old times when they stored dead bodies in morgues. They used to attach little bells to the feet of corpses. In the event someone wasn’t actually dead they would hear the bell go off. Upon reading the lyrics I wanted to take the owl concept and make it more of a mythological avatar signifying it’s a reaper of sorts. Collecting earthy vessels as payment for deeds unpunished.