BLACK OPENINGS

Black Openings is a visual accompaniment to the 2023 album, Black Openings, by Mark Solotroff's band Anatomy of Habit. The fifty black and white pictures are derived from unreal photographs that Solotroff created using AI platforms, during the spring of 2023. He edited and manipulated the pictures in a way that parallels how he processes music, in a familiar analog manner. The text that is included is the lyrics of the album's title track. Black Openings 01 (Variant) and Black Openings 02 (Variant) contain real and unreal architecture. The original versions of these two pictures appear on the covers/packaging of the LP, CD, cassette, and digital versions of the Anatomy of Habit album Black Openings. Black Openings 03-50 contain only unreal architecture. 

Print length: 154 Pages

Images: 50 / Text Squares: 21 

Color: Black and white 

Language: English 

Dimensions: 6" x 0.35" x 9" 

ISBN-13: 979-8393794385

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As a follow-up to my recent book, Not Everybody Makes It, I'm pleased to announce the release of You May Be Holding Back. This new volume is a visual accompaniment to my 2020 electronic music album of the same name. The fifty-two black and white images are derived from photographs of architecture in Chicago, some of which I shot myself and some of which I found online, particularly in the case of structures that no longer exist. I edited and manipulated the photos in a way that parallels how I processed the analog synthesizer recordings that I created the songs on the album from. The minimal text that is included is drawn from the album title and its two song titles ("A Literal Territory Occupied Literally" and "All In The Straw Together"). Those two song titles are direct drivers for sections of the book that create a tension between sin and redemption, the sacred and the profane, and heaven and hell, as dictated by both current and former architecture found in both existing and lost zones of the city. 

Print length: 120 Pages (single-sided printing)

Images: 52 

Color: Black and white 

Language: English 

Dimensions: 6" x 0.28" x 9" 

ISBN-13: 979-8434074889

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Not Everybody Makes It is a visual accompaniment to my 2021 album of the same name. The forty-four black and white images are derived from photographs that I collected from in and around my neighborhood in downtown Chicago. I edited and manipulated the photos in a way that parallels how I processed the analog synthesizer recordings that I created the songs on the album from. The sparse yet evocative text that is included is drawn directly from the album and its song titles, as well as from the titles of three additional songs that I released during the winter of 2021-22. Sensations of isolation, emptiness, and a barely lingering humanity run throughout the music, and the fragmented urban views perfectly illustrate feelings of abandonment and loss.

Print length: 120 Pages (single-sided printing)
Images: 44
Color: Black and white
Language: English
Dimensions: 6" x 0.28" x 9"
ISBN-13: 979-8777391476

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