Colorful fortune book
colorful fortune

By Harold Budd
Vancouver, British Columbia: Heavenly Monkey, 2009. Edition of 50 (1 - 10 deluxe; 11 - 50 standard).

Letterpress printed on Rives Lightweight, a classic French mouldmade paper. Set in Perpetua with Zapfino.

Heavenly Monkey: "Emerging in the 1960s from the American minimalist movement inspired by John Cage and Morton Feldman, Harold Budd has become one of the country's most prolific, consistent, and influential composers and musicians. Throughout his career, poetry – or what Harold refers to as 'something like poetry, but not the same thing' – has been an occasional companion to his music. His 'something-like poetry' now takes center stage in Colorful Fortune, the first published collection of Harold's poems ...

"The first half of Colorful Fortune presents the debut of an extended cycle in 18-parts titled Poem Sketches 2007-2008. The second half presents 11 poems which first appeared on three of his albums from the 1990s: By Dawn's Early Light, She is a Phantom, and Glyph. The book also includes 14 original drawings by Harold, inspired by the music of Monteverdi and Tristano. These 'arabesque' drawings are variations on a theme that could be described as a visual expression of his music: a string, or line, or thread, that travels, meandering across a page, entering at one point and departing at another."

Standard: 5.5 x 9", 34 pages.

Heavenly Monkey: "Hand-bound in limp paper vellum by Keith Lowe, based on the traditional limp vellum binding used for books throughout the Renaissance. The vellum paper is specially made for us from abaca fiber by papermaker Reg Lissel. It is a tremendously tough material, with a feel remarkably like vellum. It is also semi-translucent, a characteristic exploited in the design: the case is lined with a sheet printed with the title and one of the drawings. The printed text sheets are folded into three signatures and hand-sewn by Keith on to paper vellum supports; the spine is lightly pasted and lined with gampi; and the book is then pasted into the paper vellum cover. ...”
$325 Standard (not available)

Deluxe: 6.25 x 9.75 x 1"; 40 pages.

Heavenly Monkey: "Each includes intaglio reproductions (i.e. photo-etchings) of four preliminary arabesques Harold drew for the project, which were not used in the final layout. These four drawings were printed by master printer Peter Braune at New Leaf Editions, and bound into the back of the book. Also bound into each of these Deluxe copies is one of the 14 original drawings reproduced in Colorful Fortune, signed and dated by Harold. The Deluxe copies are bound by Claudia Cohen in quarter leather with leather tips, accompanied by a cloth-covered clamshell box. For the boards and endsheets Claudia created a special paste paper design inspired by Harold's arabesques."
(SOLD)