Rob Depto

Stone Tapes

Rob Depto

Nostalgia

Memory

Branding/Design/Typography

Music

Supernatural

Stone Tapes is a project that chronicles my songwriting journey so far and focuses on the interplay between sound and visuals.

The name “Stone Tapes” refers to a theory that ghosts aren’t lost souls, but are instead recordings from the past. According to the theory, humans can generate energy at emotional times and mentally impress this energy into the area around them. This stores a moment in time that can be replayed, and this is experienced as seeing a ghost.

In the same way that these ghosts are echoes from the past, each of my Stone Tape recordings capture a moment in time. They capture how I felt and who I was at the time of writing each song.

The centerpiece of this project is the cassette tape which contains recordings selected from the past seven years or so.These recordings are songs or song ideas that (aside from one cover) I’ve written in the past and are particularly special to me.

Along with the tape is a booklet that is integrated into the j-card. It is intended to be read alongside listening to the audio. Each track on the tape has a corresponding page containing writing that offers a little bit of insight into the song as well as a spectrogram that visualizes the sound. Interspersed throughout the tape are also abstract sounds that act as spectrogram illustrations and divide the tape into different eras of my life.

Holding both the tape and the booklet is a plastic case engraved with the title and an illustration of a contemplative skeleton framed by a grave-shaped window.