Autoreverse – Esreverotua compact cassette

Autoreverse is a project by Nina Garcia (electric guitar) and Arnaud Rivière (electronics). The first release by the experimental/noise duo is titled Esreverotua. Yes, that’s Autoreverse, reversed. Esreverotua features two live recordings of 20 minutes each, and is freely available for download from Da! Heard It Records (donations are welcome). The record also comes in the form of a compact cassette, in a limited edition of 111 copies.

Here’s where Esreverotua becomes interesting on a visual level, too. Hélène Marian took care of the graphic design. Instead of creating the usual J-card, she came up with a solution that is as direct and unconventional as the music itself. The exclusively typographic design is printed right on the plastic case and the cassette itself, in white ink. Paris-based Institut Sérigraphique provided the screen printing. The fonts are Marian’s own: she combined several styles of her heterogeneous PVC series – the superwide Banner, the impactful Promo, and the economic Menu; the latter being her personal take on a typical French brush lettering style. All fonts are used in all caps. They are arranged in rhythmic sequences and loops that feed back into each other, with some words amplified in volume, aptly visualizing the sound of Autoreverse. Marian also made an animation to promote the release which picks up the motif of a winding tape, as well as a matching tour poster. PVC is available from Production Type.