Seances - Power Is A Phantom

After seeing the band The Chameleons in 2023, songwriter Eric Arsnow (Devil’s Teeth, Fight Dice) was inspired to create his own new wave album. Influenced by bands he grew up with, including The Cure and Joy Division, Arsnow’s new recording project, Seances, needed artwork that tapped into the spiritual and personal elements he had infused into his music.

A CD case and disc featuring orange and white graphic illustrations of a horse, a wolf, and celestial elements such as the moon and stars.
A black illustration of a dancing dog with exaggerated features, surrounded by stars and a crescent moon on a red background with black decorative borders.

Eric approached me about creating the artwork in fall of 2024, after seeing a piece I made inspired by litho prints, and Mexican “papel picado” (punched paper). He felt the symbolism of it, and other work I had done, would fit the album’s overall tone and themes.

We discussed pagan and gothic imagery, as well as other cultural touchstones, and he tasked me with trying to come up with an idea for the first single “Fade”, as well as artwork for the full LP.

Illustration of a woman wearing a white headscarf and a black dog sitting in front of her against a solid orange background.
A stylized illustration of a woman with long flowing hair, a serene expression, in front of a moonlit sky, with stars around, accompanied by a black dog sitting in front.
Stylized illustration of a woman with a blue face, long white hair, and a black dog with its tongue out, set against a reddish background with white abstract shapes and symbols.
Illustration of a balanced scale with a human skull on the left side and a human heart on the right side, with decorative border and a tan background.

We went through a few rounds of revisions, particularly with the full album design, including incorporating runic borders, changing the direction of the ghostly figure, and playing with the transparency. For the singles artwork, I took inspiration from the lyrics, and try to fit them into the same motif as the whole album.

A lighthouse with light beams extending outward against a dark blue sky with stars.