Best Of Tucson®

Best Alternative Packaging for a Compact Disc

Chris Black, Drunk at the Funeral

Multi-instrumentalist Black—a player and composer of great note and the chargé d'affaires for the acclaimed ChamberLab project—has wearied of releasing CDs in tacky, easily broken jewel cases. For his recent collection of original compositions for voice, piano and percussion, Black worked with Spork Press to craft a beautiful, handmade wooden box with a cloth spine and silk-screened cover art. Contained inside are the disc, letter-press liner notes, a packet of his 15 charcoal illustrations (each inspired by one of the album's tracks) and a hand-bound 52-page booklet of sheet music. The album is also available in digital format, or as a CD in a cardboard sleeve with one of the prints, all of the prints or the sheet music.