NUL by Matteah Baim

Softcover, 56 pages
8 in. x 10 in. | 20.32 cm. x 25.4 cm.

NUL is a new project by American musician Matteah Baim. An album, a collection of lyrics and drawings, an art book featuring collage work by French artist Julien Langendorff. It is an audio-visual experience. 

T. Cole Rachel writes in the foreword to the book, NUL is “a document of creative energy and thought. The collected imagery—a mix of Julien Langendorff’s wonderfully elliptical collages paired with Matteah’s drawings and lyrics—provide their own experience, one that is illuminated by hearing the songs in tandem, but also not dependent on it.” 

The book traces the making of the album from the inspiration phase to the finished work. As the reader moves through the pages, photos, imagery, and lyrics tell the story. Langendorff's collages appear throughout, functioning as a kind of dream sequence (or subconscious) within the more linear storyline of the album. The record and the book can be enjoyed together, creating an enhanced experience, or on their own, as they are equally moving individual works. 

Baim began working on NUL during a period of personal upheaval—a confluence of endings. In turn, it kicked off an era of new beginnings and new experiences. With the writing she was doing for NUL, she found synchronicity in the collages of friend Langendorff—fragmentation made whole in the end. Each song on the album meshes the life stories of several creative icons into one narrative. Baim sorted through interviews, articles, antiquated news reports, and their own works to create the composite audio portraits on the record. Through this process she hoped to offer a fresh perspective on the past, and on how we may view what is yet to come.

Book Design + Cover Design by Sabrina Che

Edited by JC Gabel

Collages by Julien Langendorff

Foreword by T. Cole Rachel

Introduction by ANOHNI