Sleeve and cover art
Sleeve artwork by Richard Bernstein
Cosmic Slop by Pedro Bell
Padlock EP by Tony Wright
image sourced here.
Thrust (1974) - Herbie Hancock [Amazon.com]
(cover by Robert Springett)
Sleeve note fiction
"But the main point is that I'm trying to bring out what I call the sonic fiction of records, which is the entire kind of series of things which swing into action as soon as you have music with no words. As soon as you have music with no words, then everything else becomes more crucial: the label, the sleeve, the picture on the cover, the picture on the back, the titles. All these become the jump-off points for your route through the music, or for the way the music captures you and abducts you into its world. So all these things become really important. So a lot of the main sources of the book are from sleeve notes; they're the main thing. A lot of the book talks about sleeve note artists. It talks about the guys who did the covers for those Miles Davis sleeves, this guy Mati Klarwein, another guy Robert Springett, who did the covers for Herbie Hancock's early 70s albums. From them to this guy Dave Nodds who did all the early Suburban Base covers of DJ Hype, where DJ Hype looks like Judge Dredd. There's this single, "The Trooper", and DJ Hype is on the cover, and he's got two decks strapped to his side. He's got the cross fader, the plus and minus, across his middle. He's got these guns, which I think are actual vinyl themselves. It's sound as a weapon, sound as a military instrument that you can kill people with. It's total Judge Dredd; it's mechanismo, basically. -- http://www.ccru.net/swarm1/1_motion.htm [Apr 2005]Liner notes
Liner notes are the booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or any sound recording container. They usually include information about the musician, lyrics and other credits to people or companies involved in the production of the music. They also can give details on the extent of each musical piece, and sometimes place them in historical or social context.
Liner notes give a form of primitive and incoherently structured (from one studio or label to another) metadata set, which can sometimes help establish some form of order in a private or public collection of sound recordings. There is a special version of the ISBD which addresses the issues involved in trusting the information placed in the liner notes, when the time comes to describe a sound recording in the catalogue of a library. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liner_notes [Apr 2005]
Dust jacket
The dust jacket (sometimes dust wrapper, abbreviated dj or dw) of a hardback book is the paper, usually illustrated and including front and back flaps, that protects the binding of the book from scratches. However, since dust jackets themselves have value, aesthetic and sometimes financial, they themselves are sometimes wrapped in transparent, acetate book jacket covers. In the world of book collecting the presence or absence of an original dust jacket has a significant impact on a collectible book's value. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_jacket [Apr 2005]
Pedro Bell [...]
Shusei Nagaoka [...]
Munich Machine (1977) by Shusei Nagaoka
This 'industrial' theme continued with the distinctive image of the dancing robots, which originally appeared on the cover of Munich Machine's first album (1977). This was painted by artist Shusei Nagaoka who painted similar sci-fi images for albums by ELO 'Out Of The Blue', Earth Wind and Fire 'Raise', Meco 'The Wizard Of Oz', Space 'Just Blue' and Giorgio 'E=MC2'
Mati Klarwein
Bitches Brew (1969) - Miles Davis [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Abdul Mati Klarwein's surrealistic renderings first came to the notice of the world when Carlos Santana personally chose the cover for the LP "Abraxas", but Mati's art is also associated with Miles Davis album covers in the 1970s. His works are Dali-esque and occasionally "provocative". --http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/8599/mati2.html [Apr 2005]
Tanino Liberatore
Frank Zappa album (sleeve art by Tanino Liberatore)
Album cover artists
Soon after its introduction in the 1950s, the LP began to offer a medium for the marriage of the musical arts to the visual arts. The appeal of LPs over CDs continues today for certain collectors who find the larger visual canvas of the LP to be esthetically superior. Five decades of intermingling art with music has left a certain expectation that such a coupling is just in the natural order of things. So, perhaps the biggest challenge with the evolution of audio technologies like mp3 is not encryption or intellectual property protection, but in somehow attaching visual art to the sound file.- Mati Klarwein
- David Stone Martin
- Jim Flora
- Burt Goldblatt
- Andy Warhol
- Rick Griffin
- Mouse & Kelley
- Roger Dean
- Jack Davis
- Shusei Nagaoka
- Peter Max
- Salvador Dali
- René Magritte
- M.C. Escher
Some sleeves
Soundtrack LP cover of Nerosubianco (1969) - Tinto Brass
image sourced here.
Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score (1960) - Bernard Herrmann [Amazon.com]
Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970's Adult Cinema (2002) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970's Adult Cinema (2003) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Vampyros Lesbos (1971) - Hubler, Schwab [Amazon US] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Soundtrack to
The Schulmadchen Report/Schoolgirl Report (1970) - Gert Wilden & Orchestra
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Coffy [SOUNDTRACK] (1973) - Roy Ayers [Amazon US]
your Amazon recommendations