The Strange Face Project brings a forgotten version of Nick Drake‘s Cello Song to life through Michael Burdett’s artistic vision.

In the 1970′s Michael Burdett was a post boy for Island Records when he came across a tape of Nick Drake’s music destined for the bin. He’d been charged with the task of throwing some tapes into a skip, but one tape in particular caught his eye. I picked it up because it had Nick Drake, Cello Song and with love written on the box. The words “with love” made me think that it had to be Nick’s handwriting and on that basis I couldn’t let it go to the dump.

By the time Burdett got home he had forgotten about the tape, and it laid un-listened to for 20 years. When Burdett finally listed to the tape he was astonished by his discovery of an unknown version of Cello Song, a piece from Drake’s debut album Five Leaves Left.

Released version of Cello Song by Nick Drake

But rather than sharing his discovery, Burdett devised the Strange Face Project: We are living in a world where recorded music is distributed so casually and freely it’s almost lost its value. However, here was an opportunity to use a recording to create a very personal moment for a number of people and maybe give them an incredibly special memory.

Burdett travelled up and down the country with the recording and a set of headphones and offered 200 people the opportunity to listen to the piece. Of the 200 people Michael approached 167 said yes; city workers, farmers, scientists, hairdressers, musicians, tattooists, journalists, celebrities & he asked them all. Randomly stopping them in the street, at their places of work and in their homes, whether they knew of Drake’s material or not. The lucky few to hear the unknown Cello song were photographed as part of the project.

Michal Burdett’s photography of the Strange Faces Project is on display at The Idea Generation Gallery from the 27th of January till the 12 February.

Find more of Michael Burdett’s photography and iconic portraits of Nick Drake by Keith Morris on CultureLabel.com here.

London based Clare, aka Magpie Belle, creates delicate and ethereal fashion illustration prints which are bound to seduce you.

Here, Clare talks to us about her artistic inspiration, fashion and cooking disasters…

How would you describe Magpie Belle?
As an extension of myself and an expression of my personality. Beyond that I’d say sparkly, tactile, considered and light-hearted. It’s clearly not art to ignite serious debate.

Where did your design philosophy, Magpieus Belleus, come from?
It’s lesser-known Latin. Very lesser known. Magpie Belle stems from the way I would describe I work. I collect things that catch my eye and stow them away until an idea calls for it. I chop up a lot of magazines and read a lot of books so anything that interests me can find its way onto my drawing board.

Which artists inspire your work the most?
I admire a lot of artists from different fields but their work can influence me in a very abstract way. I listen to a lot of music too. Lyrics can often be very poetic so a few words can shape an idea for me. I’m influenced by fashion but not the cutting-edge.

As far as illustrators are concerned, I’m drawn to hand-rendered work where I have to study the piece to understand how the artist has created it. Kareem Ililya, Sophie Toulose and the paper artist, Su Blackwell, appeal to me for this reason. Their work has an otherworldly quality too which I love.

Some of your work features quotes. In those pieces do you start with the quote or the image?
I always start with an idea, usually from something I have read. The quotes always have a resonance within my own life and the idea sparks from there. If I started with an image and then tried to find a quote to fit, I think it would feel contrived and prescriptive and probably wouldn’t work. A couple of my drawings are a reference to my own cooking skills, which are less than impressive, and the blueprint for those came to me whilst I was deactivating my smoke alarm, yet again!

Find Magpie Belle’s prints on CultureLabel .

CultureLabel is very proud to present British artist and designer Dominic Wilson’s 10^th anniversary celebration of his infamous War Bowl…

Since its creation in 2002, the War Bowl has gained notoriety, being exhibited and sold in prestigious art institutions such as The Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Design Museum in London.

To celebrate the design’s 10 year success, Dominic has created two new limited edition bowls of the Battle of Waterloo in Red and the English Civil War in black, both stamped with date and edition number and now available to buy on CultureLabel here.

The War Bowl is made by melting historically accurate plastic soldiers from past battles. If you look at the bowls closely you can even distinguish between the Battle of Waterloo’s British Artillery and French Infantry and the Royalists and Republicans in the English Civil War.

Find out more about Dominic’s work on CultureLabel here.