In terms of physical music releases, CD availability fluctuates quite a lot, especially, it seems, for any project older than Chirality. On their official website, TFA explains that certain albums are available only at concerts or DJ sessions, which adds some mystique to their work. However, I am not yet one-hundred percent sure whether they are referring to their older studio albums or potentially exclusive special-edition releases. Some older albums are occasionally reprinted and made available as CDs, as I noticed while flipping through captures of their store on the Wayback Machine for this article. As of writing, Pale Awakening is currently available, alongside the usual (Chirality, Fellow Traveler, and Shape of Things to Come). Regardless, all of their studio albums are available digitally for streaming.
And now, for The Frozen Autumn's vast and expansive line of physical products:
They formerly sold a tote bag with this construction logo as well, and as there are no wayback captures of this site, my only evidence is a 2024 screenshot that I took to show off their designs to my now-partner; probably they removed it because so many complex varied products were too much for the average viewer to witness all at once:
You can find and purchase these products on their official store; but in all seriousness, though the simplicity of these designs is curious, it's not baffling, as the duo has indicated clear disinterest in marketing. On their official website, they note that their first official shirts were printed after a whole ten years of the band's existence. My soul opposes the entire concept of marketing, so this explanation, to me, is completely reasonable.
However, from a purely artistic standpoint, it pains me a little because this band has such an interesting and unique visual style. It's really too bad that their only available products are so simple when I feel their visual identity could easily inspire many beautiful designs. It's also precisely why I find this merch direction kind of funny, because as a fan, you enter the world of The Frozen Autumn through enchanting videoart and alluring album covers, only to click into their physical merch and find white text on a black background.
In fairness, this is not the only line of merchandise they’ve ever sold, it is only what is currently available; earlier designs were a little more fully realized. Few images of these designs are available, but a 2016 Facebook post shows off a shirt and reveals that these older products seem to come from a store hosted on bigcartel.com which has been under maintenance since at least April 2021, according to the Wayback Machine. The last available website capture from before the site’s indefinite closure reveal the same shirt design featured on a tote bag (listed as QTE-GRE shopper), shown below. It appears that a vinyl for Lie in Wait and a few CDs were available at the same time as the tote.
Among the available CDs was “Riding the Crest of The Frozen Wave: A Tribute to the Frozen Autumn”, a project with a very limited 500 hand-numbered copy run. This CD appeared on the store in 2013 and it fluctuated in price in the following years. Riding the Crest was a tribute project to the Frozen Autumn, a collection of hand-picked covers of Frozen Autumn music released by Froxeanne’s independent label, Calembour Records, in May 2013. Of the included names, only Hidden Place, Femina Faber, Plastique Noir and Winter Severity Index are familiar; I may have some new artists to check out. The full tracklist can be seen on Discogs.com. I'm very curious about these covers!
Included in the same capture is a link to my favorite of their shirt designs, based on the wonderfully titled “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Synthesizers”. The image link is broken in the capture which is very sad. Fortunately, I was able to find the design off of another Facebook post. A later post teases color varieties:
Early captures of the bigcartel store reveal a variety of other products, but image links are broken in captures prior to mid-2018, so it's much more difficult to get a good grasp of these items. Among these listings are their oldest t-shirt design; various physical music releases; a demotape "Crystal Chrysanthemum" from Diego's previous band, Theatre of Loneliness; and a one-off lutherie electic guitar, the very same used in studio by Diego.
I discovered an ancient image of what is likely their first T-shirt design on old captures of their official site. The linked page indicates that, at the latest, this design was released in 2003, which would align with the band's claim regarding when they began printing shirts. This T-shirt had been driving me crazy during my search, as I saw it mentioned everywhere on their public channels, but all the image links were broken! I was very excited to finally stumble upon it:
Other shirt designs crop up upon searching for Frozen Autumn merchandise on Google, but without a primary source to link to, I will assume these are unoffical so as to not accidentally spread misinfo.
I would love to see more designs from The Frozen Autumn eventually. Again, their visual style is mesmerizing and incredibly beautiful, and it would be very interesting, or at least I would find it very interesting, to see them continue to translate their visual identity into physical items. Looking at all that they've had to offer over the years, I feel there is some untapped potential. That said, at the end of the day, if they must decide between working on music or t-shirts, then I’d much rather them focus on what they’re passionate about.
Nevertheless, I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into their merch history as much as I have enjoyed researching it!