Bill Bruford's Earthworks - The Sound of Surprise : Each time I see CD art from this illustrator, I'm deeply impressed by his use of different techniques, the subtlety of his colours and textures and the strength of his compositions.
Below: The CD inlay's artwork.
Steve Morse: Major Impacts 2 : With influences from Francis Bacon and cubism this lyrical art work is again an impressive display of the illustrator's technical abilities.
Below: a close up.
Bardo Pond - Dilate : All the beauty is in the colours here. Nice compostion too.
Ian Gillan Band - Clear Air Turbulence : I'm a sucker for classic Science Fiction art. If properly executed those hand painted images still have the edge over the modern 3D generated artwork.
The Lounge Lizards: Queen of All Ears : I'm not that happy with the way the text is placed, but the quirky naive artwork appeals to me.
Mike Oldfield - Crises : The surrealist image of a lone man looking at a single monolithic building rising from a still ocean with the cold moon above it immediately evoces a feeling of desolation and loneliness. Is he the last man on Earth? Is the single light shining in the top right corner of the building his? Or could it be someone else still lives there but the two are eternally seperated from each other by the water. A mysterious painting that makes you speculating about what's going and what kind of catastrophe may have happened in the past. Wonderful.
Gamma - 2 : An original idea that seems to suggest that even in the safety of your garden you are not safe from Gamma's music.
Project Pitchfork - Chakra Red : Again a powerful image that makes perfect use of textures and a combination of earthy colours.
Muse - Origin of Symmetry : A few simple shapes and one strong colour is enough to create a striking image.
Yes - Union : For me the art of Roger Dean is inextricably linked to the music of Yes. In fact, the first thing that drew me to Yes' music are Dean's characteristic fantasy landscapes with their weird and wonderful shapes.
Uriah Heep - Sea of Light : Another example of Dean's art. Notice the floating rocks? Those are now popular in films, cartoons and computer games but I first saw them in some of Dean's paintings he did in the seventies.
