Therefore, I focused on the visualisation of those implications. A bright red is often associated with uproar and disruption, it is a very active colour in my opinion that reflects the abrasive, restless aspect of the pieces found on their Electric Landscapes with Pigs & Piano album. The Golden Ratio and Tribonacci constant were of particular importance as there was a lot of empty space to organise. Another necessity was the focus on the cover’s typography: I opted to split the artist name and album title on the two planes of the front in order to avoid stuffing the front with too much information.

The cover itself is dominated by geometric structures put into shape by the Golden Ratio and Tribonacci Constant (especially on the back), but this time in combination with circle and elipse segments as a contrast. I focused on creating a different way of text integration than on previous covers and fortunately this is one of the more lucky experiments with form and function. The beauty of ratios, numbers and maths in general as a representation of structuring a plane. Friends of botany may have already recognised that the vine on the left half of the front is Solanum Dulcamara.

The cover itself is based on one of my fractal works which I extended to a certain degree. A first draft quickly matured and lied around for some time, but I personally found it too simple, so I took the risk of giving the draft an overhaul where additional complexities have found their way into my work again. The golden and similar recursive ratios were applied more loosely, because I wanted to make more use of my instinct. Perhaps it has to do with yin and yan that the more control you excert over a design, the more you feel the desire to break with all these rules and pretend you’ve never heard of them before. Take the fonts, I felt their placement was right the way it is. Interestingly, some borders sneaked in and took a vital role towards the end, as they delivered the final pattern for the back.

The depicted plant is Angraecum eburneum, an orchid that can be found on the island of Madagascar. It formed the basic idea for the cover which Kurt had in mind. The rest evolved rather quickly without any bigger problems. Some geometric refinements were applied whenever a higher form of organisation was necessary. It may be interesting where the prominent use of white has its origin and what it could mean…

As for the illustration, I based it on several abstract works I created some time ago. The blue white contrast occurred to me as a good match to the music’s main characteristics that do not really provide any sort of comfort and introduce some kind of tension. The golden ratio was applied on several occasions, though not as strict as on other instances, mainly for organising typography. The back is less of a title listing but an illustration of a concept. How two units (or entities) composed of three are balanced out by a middle section. Arrows as another way of demonstrating how these parts are tied together and develop some kind of dynamic.

The original graphic, due to the way it came into existence, had its focusing point in the middle, which isn’t the ideal choice for a cover, because for merging image and typography, the Golden Ratio provides the best way of organising space. This may be another parallel to the music:
It is rather trivial to clutter up an image with multiple layers and facets. But the more you take away, the more thoughts have to go into the organisation of space. Therefore I believe that reduction to the essence for the sake of clarity is the most difficult task an artist can be confronted with and maybe this is a task where plug-ins or automation no longer helps. Then you are on your own with your talent (or its absence).

As to my title “un sogno dentro un sogno” (Italian for “a dream within a dream”) on the compilation, the work has become rather eerie and dissonant. Not quite the sound the first incarnation of Synflict stood for, but that’s not too surprising now that Marco’s soothing influence is gone. It may have become something like drone, but eventually, as usual, I could not help adding complexity to the original idea, so that the result would be filed best under electroacoustic. I hope I find some time during the remaining weeks of the old year to follow up with a new album.

Again, I used recursive ratios, this time a relative of the Golden Ratio with the main difference being that a length is not composed of two but three successors, which makes this variant an ideal choice for text boxes. Actually, if you look at the image composition, the Golden Ratio occurs there, too, though rather accidentally. The colours on the front cover create a subtile tension, or perhaps even a dissonance which is amplified by the motif itself (leaveless willows on a pond, a photography I took several years ago). Despite its simplicity, the cover is an interesting eye catcher, leaving both the artist and me rather satisfied about the result.

The basic idea evolved rather rapidly using the Gimp, with some refinements and changes added at the request of the artist, where I took the chance to include some additions, like the re-introduction of using fonts as a decorative element and my usual obsession with ratios and how they reoccur as a common thread of the composition. In the end, the cover became rather distinct and effectful, quite matching to the rather sombre music and its basic feeling of isolation.