New DMP merch

Most appropriately to the forthcoming dark months, Polish artist Maciej Kamuda (BLUT AUS NORD) gifted us with a sinister and sorrowful new work of Art. The design is called "Bell-Ringer" and is available as t-shirt (man/woman) as well as hooded sweatshirt and zip hoodie:

The logo on the back, an alternative version to our current official logo, was designed by Adrian Baxter. All items are print on demand and can be ordered via our EU and Bandcamp shops.

Maciej Kamuda comments on his design:

"This is one of my old ideas I came up long time ago. I do not even remember when exactly, but the very first concept sketch, on small piece of paper, was drawn in 2017. The idea itself is probably even older. Sometimes I come up with something, it is in my head, or I write it down, but then do nothing about it and the idea reappears from time to time until I do the initial sketch. But that first sketch does not mean I start working on it immediately, as you see in this case. It took me five years to, let's say, let the idea grow on me. I just felt like I was not ready to draw it the way I wanted. And because I really believed in that concept, I could not just go and draw it right from the spot. So, you know, I guess I just let it come to me naturally. I had that sketch in front of me all that time, I looked at it every day and I was thinking about doing it so many times, but then I was like ‘nah, not yet'. I just waited for that right moment to come, but I can't really explain why the time was now. I just felt it was and I really wanted to draw it. I had the right mood, right mindset. It is really hard to explain why I do things sometimes, haha!"

The final and now visible version of the "Bell-Ringer" was crafted digitally during many nights:

"The very first sketch was done on a small piece of paper. It is like this little yellow note paper, you know? The one you pin to a wall, right? And it was not really a good sketch. It was done with ballpoint pen. It took me just few seconds. It was a doodle just to have that idea written down somehow, somewhere. When I started to work on it, I decided to do it all digitally, from sketches to final drawing. It took me a lot of time, hours, days, I cannot really tell. I worked on it many nights. It is hard to tell how long exactly as I did not measure my time. I made a lot of sketches. First, I sketched all the elements separately, just to study them. So, I spent many hours on sketching just the monk, finding the right pose. I wanted him to look like he was really struggling with ringing that bell, like he was tired. His pose should also show, suggest, or even better emphasize the weight of the bell, its heaviness. I did not want to show the face of the monk, so he had to display all that just by his pose. That was the first challenge. The same accounts for the devil. I struggled a lot with finding the right pose. It was tricky because he sits on a bell which is round. The pose and perspective are very specific, so I had to understand how his body parts, especially his hands, should be aligned. The figures alone took me a lot of time, as well as the whole composition, the perspective, and the lighting. I drew it all from the head mostly. I only had some reference photos of church bells, but nothing with that particular position or perspective. I also took some pictures of myself posing for the monk. I kept changing every little detail about him. I drew the devil and everything else without any reference, but I also did not want to use any. I wanted to challenge myself and try to draw as much as I can without looking at photos. It is not because I do not accept references. They are a normal thing in Art. It is a part of the process, but in 'Bell-Ringer' I just wanted to do it that way. I don't know, to make it harder and just for fun at the same time."