Handshake Collaborations

Solar Sessions: a charity album and zine just released! We’ve got tons of new, space-themed work to share with you, and we can hardly wait.

Join Handshake Collaborations in raising money for the Evergreen Satellite Food Bank with our biggest project yet! Pay what you want to get thirteen tracks, sixteen works of art, and ten short stories and poems all inspired by our solar system and beyond. If you’re a fan of the starry, ambient, glitchy, bizarre, and beautiful great unknown, you won’t want to miss out.

Download the album and zine here!

Preview the songs - More about Handshake Collaborations - Participant list below cut

Pictured: @circlejourneyart (cover art), @kamoriaart (top left), Catarina Pulli @riinapulli (top right), Apex @aepaex (mercury art), Alannah Journeay (bottom left), Adena Smith @cute-anonyme (bottom right)

EDIT: All main artist slots are full, but you can still join us as a bonus track or backup artist in case someone drops out.

We’re looking for folks to join us this summer for a charity album and zine about s p a c e! If you’re interested, you know where to find us.

[YET UNTITLED PLANET ALBUM] is a collection of ethereal jams, writing, and artwork inspired by the planets of our solar system, supporting the Evergreen Satellite Food Bank in Olympia, WA, and organized by Handshake Collaborations, aiming to release in Fall 2018.

EDIT: All visual artist slots are full, but you can still join us as a bonus track or backup artist in case someone drops out. Writer slots are still open!

the album portion of the project is in progress, and we’re now looking for artists and writers to collaborate with us on the accompanying zine - we're looking for folks who are enthusiastic about their craft, with a team-friendly attitude, who have experience creating as a hobby, and are ready to give and receive kind, constructive criticism.

apply here.

more details under the cut!

artists: spacey, starry, college-based, glitchy, layered, and strange vibes are the goal! digital and traditional mediums are both welcome (as long as your traditional piece can be cleanly scanned). bring an idea for a piece, get inspired by music or writing, or work as part of a team. we work with people of many skill levels, but our core requirements are these: you can produce a finished piece by the deadline, and you’re willing to take feedback on board and make changes if necessary.

writers: speculative, short, weird, non-linear pieces are what we’re looking for. we're talking: instructional pamphlet for staking claim to land on mars. first person perspective of microbial life in europa's under-ice oceans. a half-page poem about how every time you see a picture of neptune, you think about your ex, but in the poem when you talk about your ex you say neptune instead, so like, who can really say if the poem is about your ex? really? if this sounds like fun to you, or you have a piece already written that you’d like to submit, give us a shout!

project structure:

Each celestial body in (or, with enough applicants, beyond) our solar system has a team composed of a musician, a visual artist, and a writer to create pieces inspired by it. If the musician has lyrics for their song, they double as the writer.

Thus, we end up with, for each celestial body, a song for the album and a bit of writing and piece of visual art for the zine.

We use Discord, a versatile chat client, to plan, stay in touch, and provide critique for each other’s work. You will need to download Discord to participate.

The album and zine will be made available via Bandcamp, free download with optional donation, for 3 months after release (expected to be fall 2018). After this period of time, all the donations will be gathered together into a single donation that will be made to the Evergreen Satellite Food Bank. The album and zine will then be available as a free download (no donation possible) for the foreseeable future. As you can see, this is a charity project, and none of us are receiving compensation.

the application deadline is june 30th, and the tentative project deadline is august 31st.

ready to join? got questions? email us at [email protected] or apply here.

you can keep up with our projects by following @hscollabs​ on tumblr or twitter.

about handshake collaborations:

We're a tight-knit group of musicians, vocalists, writers, and visual artists from around the world collaborating and creating together with the power of the internet! While our members and organizers hail from a variety of successful collaborative and fan projects like SONGS FROM MT EBOTT and LAND OF FANS AND MUSIC, we ourselves have previously created and released i l l u (an 8 song remix album), so you know we're serious and have the chops to carry this through.

FAQ 

Q: Do I get to pick what planet I work on, or is it assigned?

A: Planets are first come, first serve, your choice!

Q: Do the music, art, and writing for a given planet have to be related to each other? Should they be inspired by or about each other? 

A: That is up to each planet team! We're hoping you will take the time to talk with, connect with, and get inspired by your planet teammates and the whole album team, but it's okay if your work doesn't directly relate to each other's. That said, if you decide you want to create something very interdependent with another creator, that's awesome, and welcomed as well! 

Q: Can two or more creators collaborate to create just the music, art, or writing for a planet? 

A: Yes. 

Q: What are the zine dimensions?

A: Pages will be 8.5" by 5.5" (half letter page booklet size).  Vertical unless otherwise decided by your planet team. Artists may make work within the dimensions of 5.5"x5.5" to 8.5"x5.5" 300 dpi minimum. Please send PNGs. If you choose to make a piece that is not square, keep in mind it will need to be cropped to a square for Bandcamp, and send in a square crop with your finished piece. 

Q: How will the art and writing be integrated into the zine?

A: Each team gets four pages in the zine; one solely for art, three for writing. If a team would like to integrate their art and writing they may. 

Q: What is the length limit for writing pieces? 

A: Your piece will need to fit comfortably within three 8.5" by 5.5" half letter pages, vertical unless otherwise decided by your planet team. Set that up in your word processor and see what fits! This is the MAXIMUM, though--feel free to just write a page, or even less, if it suits your work.

Q: Are there plans for a physical print/CD run of the album and zine?