There are a number of long-established jazz labels in Germany, such as ECM, FMP, and enja, whose album covers are instantly recognizable. But in Switzer land, the country next door known for its orderliness, there is a record label that outdoes them all: Hat Hut Records with their relentlessly standardized album covers. The label, which combines the English and German words for “hat,” boasts a complex catalog, with subseries such as hatART, hatOLOGY, hatNOIR, and repeated reissues of recordings.

I want to point to a particular album cover among the calligraphy-heavy designs produced after the label’s inception in the mid-1970s. Designed by Klaus Baumgärtner (1948-2013), a sculptor and collage artist, the front cover art floats like a Paul Klee drawing, contrasting mysteriously with Joe McPhee’s saxophone, while the brush strokes that fill the back cover (this was back when phototypesetting was the norm) might even evoke Japanese brushstrokes.

Unlike traditional pen calligraphy, the brushwork doesn’t conform to a base line, producing inconsistencies that seem to sneer at the digital. The mirror-image hat motifs above the A and B side tracklists, as well as on the center labels, add a playful touch. Now that the pandemic is over, you might find some of the original pressings in this Far East island nation that stands out as a collector-friendly international record market. Coincidentally, the photo book released after Baumgärtner’s death was titled Sequence.(Reprinted from Subsequence vol.7)

Hat Hut Records Ltd.
https://hathut.com

Gaspard Lenski/An immigrant from Poland, Gaspard Lenski was raised in Lyon. He operates a guesthouse in the Canterbury area of England.