Involvement:
- Instrumental Performances
- Audio Mix
- Release Planning
- Artwork
- Video Production
- Product Photography
instrumental session performance and audio mix
In the summer of 2022 James Harker came to David Lawrie to request some session performances for his album Limerence. After discussing the project it became clear that David could bring some unique flavours to the project, and three days of session performances were done remotely, with James in his creative space and David in the studio. The session was conducted via a Zoom video link, and all audio from Logic was streamed at studio quality via the amazing software, Audiomovers Listento.
James already had a mix engineer lined up for the album, but after slow progress with inconsistent results, he turned to Ishikawa for David to mix the album in the late autumn of 2022. By the end of 2022 the album had been mixed by David, and then mastered by Andy Wilson.
artwork and video production
Upon finishing the audio side of the album, David Lawrie, under his HARUKO guise, created a music video for the song “Beautiful Amber Blinks.” This was shot over two days, in three locations. It was edited by HARUKO, and then lovingly colour graded by DAVID DILEY over at Scarlet View Media.
During the afternoon in the blackout studio, HARUKO took the opportunity to take some promo photos of James. These didn’t have a specific purpose at the time, but some of the images ended up being perfect for the album artwork, as well as the artwork for the single. HARUKO created the artwork for digital, as well as print ready layouts for CD and Vinyl releases.
crowdfunding and release
James worked with Ishikawa to plan and execute a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
By setting a reasonable budget – just enough to offset some of the out-of-pocket costs – we were confident of success, but we were not prepared for how quickly it would surpass its goal. Within 72 hours it was funded, and the rest of the campaign saw additional support flowing.
Because of the almost instantaneous success of the crowdfunding, the wheels were set in motion for the album to be pressed on CD and Vinyl, with the album being released in July 2023.
Because of the increasing delay in Vinyl manufacture during the COVID pandemic, it was decided that the Vinyl version would ship in October, with pre-orders being supplemented with an immediate digital download.