Tom Vek returns with surprise album New Symbols, launches Indiegogo for new music device Sleevenote

New Symbols is Tom Vek's first LP since 2014's Luck album, and features eight new tracks.

As well as dropping his surprise album, Vek has launched an Indiegogo page for his new electronic portable music player device Sleevenote.

Priced at £533, Vek's Sleevenote has a 1:1 square high resolution display and is a 7.5" diagonal tablet-style device. Described as a "music player for album lovers", Vek is looking for at least 1000 people to back the Indiegogo to allow the device to be put into production.

The Sleevenote plays music and focuses on the album artwork, which is usually minimised to fit on rectangular smart phone screens.

Speaking to NME about how the device links to his surprise album, Vek said, "Over the last few years I’ve been working as a designer and met a software developer. That’s what led to the Sleevenote project. The excitement of that coming together is what spurred me into getting the record finished. I was excited about it being so unusual for a musician, as my interests have grown into design and product design, because I need that extra excitement. When I was a teenager, releasing an album was the most exciting thing. Now I’m quite excited that the album is part of a bigger picture. I figured that I’m going to have to go crazy on Sleevenote marketing-wise – and I can’t say that I’m a recording artist if I haven’t released an album in six years!"

Discussing his Sleevenote device, Vek added, "It’s all about keeping each album’s identity going. When albums are presented inside a clean interface, it puts it behind a sheet of glass and inside a box to make for a more ‘tasteful’ user experience. Whereas with us, the character of the record is right up there and up front. It has interactive tracklist art where you type the name of the song into the art to play it. That will be different for every album, so they’ll be in different places."

Tracklist:

1. Survive
2. Guilty Pleasure
3. Slippery Fish
4. Rolling You Down
5. All The Time In The World
6. My Child
7. Washed Up On The Beach
8. Fountains Spit Your Name