#imagine waking up 20 years in the future to a desolate world

[thecurioustale]

(Re)introducing Galaxy Federal

This is the third and final part in my (Re)introducing Series, and the one that I've been looking forward the most to writing, because I've thus far held details about Galaxy Federal very close to my vest. Here's a look at my big sprawling sci-fi world.

Galaxy Federal is a lot newer than The Curious Tale, though with the passage of time I can no longer call it truly new.

The first stirrings began in the late 2000s when I created the character of Mereidi Basilisk, my spiritual successor to Samus Aran of the Metroid franchise. I love the mysteriousness, desolation, exploration, and eeriness of the old-school Metroid, especially the ones I grew up with, Metroid II and Super Metroid, and I like to dwell on stories like the ones they inspire.

The other big sci-fi source that I've always wanted to do my own take on is Star Trek, with its optimistic future, sense of wonder and exploration, and commitment to humanism. I began imagining a story about a starship on a 20-year mission to travel to a charted but unvisited star system, to build a massive colony and install a faster-than-light gateway to connect the system to the rest of civilization. This story involved a captain modeled on the Goddess Venus, someone so fat and bountiful that she had a second body just to get around in, as the first one was too busy luxuriating at home. It was shaping up to be a decent story, but then winds of fortune changed:

I gradually converged the two vibes, Metroid and Star Trek, together into one catch-all, one clear counterpart to The Curious Tale, and early in the 2010s I began conceiving of a story about a completely different starship on which Mereidi was a crewmember. I had an idea for a "walking simulator" video game—which I would still like to do at some point—where Mereidi wakes up after a medical procedure and finds the ship seemingly deserted.

Nothing came of that idea at the time either, but gradually I became more and more interested in the captain of Mereidi's ship, a gaunt and short person with silver hair named Cherry. She's the one who finally became the nucleus of a story that stuck.

"Galaxy Federal" refers to the entire legendarium as a whole, not any one specific story, much how "The Curious Tale" refers to everything set in the world of Relance. The name comes from a few things: 1) It's the name of the government; 2) it's a nod to the endearingly bad translation of the title screen of the original Metroid, where Samus receives her mission orders from the "Galaxy Federal Police"; and 3) it's descriptive, as I love thinking about and depicting bureaucracy. (Do you remember the video game Control a few years ago? Good grief I loved that game! Not for the gameplay or the mechanics, but for the brutalist aesthetics and the ridiculous inanity of this shadowy, quasi-competent US government agency whose purview is the realm of the supernatural. Delightful!)

The world of Galaxy Federal is set roughly 162,000 years in our future. In that time, humanity has spread across the entire Galaxy and is now in the process of beginning to infill the many star systems it initially skipped over. In this way, human civilization is a lot like an archipelago, little star-islands connected by extradimensional roads called Galaxy Vectors (modeled after the National Interstate Highway System) that allow the full breadth of the Milky Way to be traversed in a matter of weeks instead of millennia. Even so, relativistic physics are an important presence in Galaxy Federal storytelling, as the movements and communications within star systems are mostly relativistic, as are voyages to star systems with no Galaxy Vector access. (That's why Galaxy Federal is set as far in the future as it is: At sub-light speeds it took humanity a long time indeed to traverse the Milky Way to set up its Galaxy Vector system.)

Galaxy Federal represents a future where, at some point between now and then, humanity decided that the most efficient, most profitable, and most resource-minimized solutions aren't always the best ones. Dark indeed are the logical implications of the endless quest for more efficiency, and, among other things, there is no room for humanity as we know it in such a future. So, in Galaxy Federal, you will often see people doing things in ways that are not necessarily efficient so much as fulfilling. It's why starships have human crews at all. It's why people eat costly cakes and burgers instead of optimized nutrient slime. It's why people often visit each other in person to talk rather than using electronic communication. And so on.

The future of Galaxy Federal is essentially a human one. Galaxy Federal posits the "lonely Earth" scenario of intelligent life being extremely rare to evolve, and so there are no "alien" civilizations, no Klingon Empire; virtually every sapient being we encounter is a descendant or creation of humanity. But humanity itself has grown much more diverse. So, while many if not most meat-bodied humans look more or less like you or I do, there are all kinds of exceptions—both pragmatic for the purposes of living in different environments, and also aesthetic (because some people just really want to fly). In the time of Galaxy Federal humanity has taken control of its own evolution, and the practice of body modification has progressed extensively, so there does exist everything from bird-people to tree-people—all human in lineage. (There are also rare instances of members of other quasi-intelligent Earth species, like crows, lifted up into sapience.)

Humanity is broadly divided into three groups: 1) the "old humans" who live in meat bodies, though these bodies may be heavily modified; 2) the people who exist entirely within virtual worlds and have no physical body but are otherwise like "old humans" in intellect; and 3) people with constructed intelligence, who may exist in physical bodies or purely virtually; these people are what we would call artificial intelligences (or, sometimes, artificial general intelligences) today. These three groups of humanity are not "factions" in the political sense; there is no storytelling that I care to wring out of setting them against each other. Rather, they represent three different modalities for experiencing the world. And all acknowledge their human lineage. There is no "us versus them" mentality, for instance, when it comes to those whom we would consider AI. Everyone is human.

The political conflict, rather, emerges geographically, economically, and ideologically. For example, Galaxy Federal (the galactic federal government) controls most of the settled Galaxy, but there is a breakaway civilization as well, and war exists between the two. Galaxy Federal member states are like states of the United States in that they enjoy broad self-governing autonomy while still being subservient in some matters. Thus, the quality and texture of life is quite variable across the Galaxy.

One thing to appreciate about the civilization of Galaxy Federal is that everything is really, really big. Starships are huge; megastructures abound. There is a lot of hard science fiction to be found in this—and a lot of me running around behind the scenes with my hair on fire to make sure I don't accidentally create a ship so big that its energy requirements exceed the available energy of the Universe or some damn nonsense like that.

That's Galaxy Federal, the series, the franchise, the legendarium.

But what about the actual novel that I'm working on? Well, that's the novel about Cherry. It does have an official title, but I haven't announced that publicly yet, so for the time being the working title is "Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel," or GalFIN. 😏 (Just kidding, though that does sound like some kind of fun miniature-golf-adjacent leisure sport.)

I've said very little as yet about this story publicly, even though it has been in active development for over seven years. Here is what I can say about it today:

Diwa ng Seresa, more commonly known by her popular epithet Cherry Ilyapa, is a famous starship captain—the most successful and admired in all the War Sectors. But life is not easy for her, and she often skirts the line of oblivion. Now she is being promoted and reassigned, but on her final voyage she sees an upsetting photograph of a battle that she fought in many years ago. When she gets permission to investigate, Cherry and the Starship Sevenge unwittingly begin a journey into the unknown from which there is no return.

That's not the best back-of-the-book blub you've ever read, I grant, but it's the best I could do on short notice. Several fundamental details of the story and its arrangement are still in flux such that it is difficult to write any synopsis. But hopefully this does the job of intriguing your curiosity without giving away too much and/or becoming wrong or outdated in the future.

And I think that about does it for (re)introductions! Let me know if you have any questions.

[radio-static]

Boper my beloper.. thank you @alieryn-art for creating such a man.

[hcmj]

HCMJ’s Favorite Albums of 2019!

Listen to a mix featuring these albums here: HCMJ’s 2019 End Of Year Mix

Other Favorites:

David Bruce - The North Wind Was a Woman

galen tipton - fake meat

upusen - Highland Ave.

BLACKPINK - Kill This Love

Starkey - Earth EP

Lamp - ‘A Distant Shore’ Asia Tour 2018

AWITW - Ｓｈｅ Ｗａｌｋ Ａｌｏｎｅ う者姻

Seaketa - Gion ぎおん

SNJO - Diamond

BONNEVILLE - AFFORDABLE LUXURY

20) Gareth Davis & Scanner - Footfalls

I first found the experimental composition/clarinet music of Gareth Davis in the early 2010′s during my initial dive into the Miasmah catalog. Teamed up here with another electronic musician/clarinetist, Footfalls uses long, poetic waves of deep woodwinds and synth improv to describe hauntingly desolate environments. It only seems fitting to start the list with one of many bookends on a decade in the grim, cold grey of Philadelphia.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

19) Barker - Utility

Arp and delay-driven rhythmic expression that recalls late-era Kraftwerk, building a pristine sci-fi future with ear-pleasing, rich, and laser-sharp production. Like disembodied trance or house music searching for a strong beat that never comes, Utility is absolute, skillfully-stated synth pleasure.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

18) Sean McCann/Seth Graham w/Kymatic Ensemble  - Split Series Vol. IV

Seth Graham’s Gasp was a big favorite in 2018, here condensed and re-imagined for chamber ensemble. Sean McCann’s “Vilon” finds a blissful middle-ground between electronic ambient music and traditional western instrumentation, like a poignant hymn sung somewhere far away, while the new “Gasp” arrangements are full of expressiveness and surprises.

BANDCAMP

17) 猫 シ Corp. & t e l e p a t h - Building a Better World

Deep bass pulses and distant rain welcome us to a familiar comfortable place, but as the unmistakable sound and melodic freedom of telepath’s original synth work bends its way over rolling toms in the reverb-soaked hifi opener, it becomes clear that this album is something new and special. Full-on new age drenched in an endless downpour, it’s a huge and beautiful world that’s blissful to be lost in.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

16) Various Artists - Oneironaut

Another rare case of a compilation that is actually worth listening to, Japanese indie powerhouse Local Visions assembles the best talent from the sax-loving, jazz-infused, post-vaporwave electronic underworld of Japan and beyond in the indomitable Oneironaut comp. Notable contributions from Utsuro Spark, upusen, Tsudio Studio, tamao ninomiya, and countless others deliver a hazy daydream.

BANDCAMP

15) wai wai music resort - WWMR 1

Also from Local Visions comes this special collection of tracks caught somewhere between “lost LP found in a record crate” and “bedroom 4-track” - two distinct lofi flavors that mysteriously meld seamlessly on WWMR 1. It sounds new and old, youthful and mature, and full of affection for love and the music it references.

BANDCAMP | SPOTIFY

14) EXID - Me & You

There’s something about this mini-album, a Christmas time snowy nostalgia as the sun sets on another chapter of life (and era of kpop) in tracks like “나의밤” and “WE ARE..,” the Jamiroquai funk of “내일해 (Urban Mix),” or club igniting title track - EXID may never exist in this form or at this level again, and like so many of my favorites this year it reflects the recent history of its genre brilliantly.

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

13) Fire-Toolz - Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace)

Field Whispers is the stunning next step in the evolution of Fire-Toolz that feels completely at home on the finely-curated Orange Milk. Extended sax-soaked dreams collide with splinters of music jumbled and broken, elegant and disjointed, all bouncing off each other while still leaving room for moments of soaring guitar and dreamy synth pads.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

12) Hakobune - The Last of Our Time Together

With over 50 releases (4 just this year!), Hakobune’s discography can seem like an impenetrable wall of ambience, but like classics Seamless and Here and Love Knows Where, The Last of Our Time Together stands out - monumental and multi-dimensional - a slow dance skidding along the frozen surface of an endlessly deep, rich sea of emotion.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

11) FM Skyline - Advanced Memory Suite

As nostalgic electronic music continues to evolve and find itself elevated in the hands of increasingly-focused musicians, FM Skyline delivers a joyful retrospective on a decade that gave new life to so many old sounds. Exploring the inner recesses of our memory and delusion, Advanced Memory Suite turns the page on a decade of chillwave/synthwave/vaporwave/whateverwave. It’s a hypnotic monument to the modern renaissance.  

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

10) emamouse - Black place on the edge

It was a huge year from the prolific Tokyo-based visual artist and musician emamouse, whose non-stop creative output continues to challenge the very nature of reality. Black place on the edge was a standout favorite this year, layered and mysterious - incidental music for the surreal dreamworld described in mou’s most unnerving illustrations. Like waking up and finding yourself trapped inside Quest 64.

BANDCAMP

09) Koeosaeme - Obanikeshi

My favorite Orange Milk release of the year, Koeosaeme delivers another absolute hurricane of hyper-detailed, sensory-extreme, buckshot-to-the-face arrangements. The sheer amount of data on this album is staggering, with more musical information packed into a few minutes of its blissful chaos than most full length albums combined.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

08) Jaeho Hwang - Non-self 비자아

I was super fortunate to play a show with Jaeho Hwang in Tokyo during this year’s Neo Gaia Phantasy tour - his immense set started so intensely it’s as if the entire room was cast under a shamanistic spell, hypnotized by percussive expressionism, drawn to the light of digitally melting faces and occult rituals playing out on the screen behind him. Non-self 비자아 is without mercy and full of powerful and primal energy.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

07) Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Natalie Mering’s subtly expressive, velvety voice on its own is enough to make anything she touches turn to gold, but her songwriting is so masterfully dialed in on Titanic Rising it’s as if Harry Nilsson came back from the dead to write a new volume of pop rock ballads to get us through the next 50 years. It’s an album dripping with love for all the best parts of the 1970′s (Stardust-era Willie Nelson, early ELO, “Lost Weekend” Lennon and friends, etc), but also showcases the compositional chops to match and sometimes surpass its musical lineage (e.g. “Picture Me Better”).

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

06) Monari Wakita - RIGHT HERE

Off the heals of last year’s jaw-dropping Ahead!, ex-Especia Monari Wakita continues to defy modern conventions while asserting herself as one of the most powerful female voices in jpop. “エスパドリーユでつかまえて” sounds like Hitomitoi when she was a rising star, FRIEND IN NEED continues the new jack swing flirting, “やさしい嘘” sounds like it’s begging to be sampled by a future funk artist, and the lead-off single “Just a Crush for Today” is somewhere in a stop-and-go freefall between Billy Joel and Sonic R.

VIDEO 1 | VIDEO 2

05) Yeule - Serotonin II

Beneath the subtle power and diffusion of a voice like an extra-dimensional Julee Cruise, Serotonin II’s beautifully bleak paintings of the world it carefully constructs are reflective of Yeule’s transcendence into the artist’s next form. Crumbling brutalism under a blinding white sky, aliens in a graveyard - the romance of eternal torment in the spiral - all in dark room illuminated by a computer monitor sometime in the 00′s.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

04) The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6

The final release for this multi-year project, capturing a mind being lost to dementia, also marks the end of Leyland Kirby’s multi-decade spanning Caretaker project - a project that has had an immense impact on my perception of the limitlessness of music. Now completed, Everywhere at the End of Time towers as a 50 track, 6.5 hour journey from dreamy lucidity to terrifying confusion and darkness.

BANDCAMP

03) Tsudio Studio - Soda Resort Journey

Tsudio Studio brings a contemporary frame to leisure fantasy. Instant classics “Kiss in KIX,” “Asian Coke Light,” and “Like a Ruin” expand on the electro-bossa pop of Port Island, while surprises like “Beijing Cat” expand and explore new worlds of sound. One perfect chord after another, from start to finish, Soda Resort Journey is bubbly and delicious to listen to. Play it looped, close your eyes, be where you’d rather be.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

02) Minuano - Butterfly Dream

Lamp vocalist Kaori Sakakibara’s side project Minuano is like some mutant variant of Lamp - equally complex while slightly less disorienting arrangements (although there are a few re-worked Lamp classics on here), tighter pop sound, stunningly immaculate vocal production - all while maintaining the unique orchestral jazz pop that makes both bands such a euphoric joy to listen to. “Memory of Soda Pop” was my favorite track released by anyone this year.

BANDCAMP

01) EQUIP - CURSEBREAKER X

This was the year of EQUIP. No better story for this year, no better sound than CURSEBREAKER X - the songs from this album will always bring back a thousand memories of smoke-filled clubs, dark forests, and snow-capped mountains from across Japan - the building promise of absolute freedom and a happier tomorrow as we all lived the Neo Gaia Phantasy.. But even without my personal connection to the music, the hardware-driven “perfect sound” VGM and EQUIP’s signature cassette tape destruction has never been better balanced than it is here - it’s loud, and filled with unforgettable melodies and unknown lands. It’s monumental and iconic and will stand the test of time and it was my favorite album of 2019!

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

[lindoig8]

Friday to Sunday - 9-11 July

Friday

We walked across to the Information Centre in the morning to try to book some tours. Heather had numerous phone calls and emails with a guy from there over several weeks (I think she started in Halls Creek) but had been unable to firm anything up because we couldn’t say exactly when we would arrive and because they don’t run the tours every day unless there is sufficient demand. One of the tours we wanted to do was a 4WD tagalong and they were just starting one as we arrived and there was room for one more car so they waited while I ran back to the caravan park (just across the road) to get our car and off we went.

It was really interesting. We started at the Information Centre and drove down to the Thermal Spring (the Bore). From there, we drove out to the historic Albert River bridge and its modern replacement side by side. Back into town and crawling through the scrub to see the last remaining post from the old port. Burketown was a flourishing port for some years but obviously, that ceased to be a long time ago. But there is a fancy new ‘port’: a large jetty and boat ramp, opened only about 2 years ago according to our guide. (I suspect it might be a little older than that, because it looks just like it did last time we saw it 4 years ago.)

At each stop, we were regaled with a little history, including some aboriginal stories and information about the plants and animals in the area. We learned a little about the medicinal uses of some plants and how to tell if it is safe to eat some of their fruits. At the port, we heard lots of stories about crocodiles – Brenton (our guide) and Patrick (his assistant) had lots of fascinating tales to tell and Brenton said he could talk about crocodiles all day – and I think he really could.

We set off again to see the remains of the abattoir and meatworks that was once a thriving local industry, but which is now just a rusting mouldering collection of defunct tanks and equipment slowly being eaten by the surrounding bush. Looking at the town now, it is hard to imagine it being a significant port, with industrial and commercial importance, servicing the whole of northern Queensland into the Northern Territory, but the evidence is there if you have knowledgeable people to point it out to you.

Then it was a drive out onto Australia’s largest saltpan – and it is huge. It is totally barren and we only drove a few kilometres out to where they do their Storytelling and Stargazing tours that we still hope to see – but it obviously goes many kilometres further and would be irrevocably treacherous with only a small shower of rain. They told us about people getting lost out there with no signage or landmarks to show them which way to go back to Burketown – and of course, this entire part of the country is under water during the wet months. Vehicles that get bogged are essentially lost for ever – so much of the saltpan is boggy that once a vehicle becomes bogged, nobody else can get close enough to help them out again. Even if they did get out of the bog, they would immediately bog again.

It was then a longish drive to Woods Lake, our next stop. We were the last car in the convoy with seven cars in front of us creating a veritable dust-storm but we are used to that by now. The drivers of some of the other shiny clean cars seemed less anxious to drive in anyone else’s wake so we were all strung out over about a kilometre and a half.

Woods Lake is apparently a paradise in the wet, but it is a desolate dry lakebed at present. Again, we heard lots more aboriginal stories and survival hints – our guides were really great. I admit to some reluctance to go on indigenous tours because they are so often ‘poor me, look what the wicked whities have done to us’ diatribes – but this one was really great. We heard about some of the atrocities, but they were related in a pragmatic way with a ‘this is what happened, but let’s just make it better in the future’ attitude. I am not denying history, but every civilisation (and non-civilisation) has dark times in its past and I think it pointless to carp on forever about things that can’t be changed. It was quite refreshing to hear a more positive view of the future without a massive demand for compensation from our guides.

Our final stop was at the Nicholson River Crossing: a ford where half a centimetre of water was washing the road – but which is several metres under water in the Wet. Upstream from the crossing it is freshwater, whilst downstream it is salt. And there are lots of both salt- and fresh-water crocodiles there. We didn't see any but it seems that both species inhabit both sides of the crossing so nobody felt any inclination to have a paddle.

They set up tables and chairs on the edge of the road and provided tea, coffee and muffins and we sat around and chatted for quite a while. Our 3-hour tour lasted almost 5 hours and our guides would perhaps still be chatting with us if some people hadn’t needed to leave and break up the party. Overall, it was an excellent tour with heaps of interesting information and things to see and hear about.

Back at the Information Centre, we managed to book on a Sunset Cruise on the Albert River – out to the mouth of the river on the Gulf. That is on Monday evening, but we are still waiting to see if we can go on the Stargazing one on Tuesday.

By then, it was mid-afternoon and we had only eaten a muffin each, but we decided to share a packet of chips and have a slightly earlier dinner. We roasted some lamb in our double-sided pan and it was delicious – but we were starving by the time it was ready.

Saturday

Most of the day, we just stayed around camp. We did a couple of loads of washing and went out to the shop in the afternoon – only to find that both shops were closed until Monday. Fortunately, nothing on our list was urgent.

At night, we watched the last episode of The Cliff, a short Icelandic police series – quite well done and it reminded us how much we want to spend more time in that beautiful country – but of course, we were relying on the subtitles because neither of us speak a lot of Icelandic! Sometimes it was a little hard to follow when the dialogue sped up beyond our reading ability.

Sunday

We decided to go out for lunch and wanted to check out the Tyrranna Roadhouse, 30-odd kilometres towards Borroloola. We may need to stay there if we can’t extend our stay in Burketown and wanted to have a look at the place – so decided to buy lunch out there. It was an interesting drive out there with lots of raptors picking at numerous roadkill victims along the way. There were the usual 20 or 30 Black and Whistling Kites, but also a White-bellied Sea-Eagle and about 6 or 8 Wedgies – on the way back, we saw absolutely nothing! Very strange……

Unfortunately, it was cleaning day at Tyrranna and their kitchen was closed so we came back to Burketown and went to the pub. Alas, it wasn’t serving lunch either but they directed us to the little restaurant and takeaway shop across the road and suggested we buy something there and bring it back to the pub where we could get a drink to enjoy with our meal. We did this and brought fish and chips back and had a cold one while we sat in the open window of the pub and watched a tiny bit of the world go by.

It was still pretty hot, but it cooled down later in the afternoon and I went out again to see if I could find some more birds in a different part of the wetland created by the Bore. I saw a few birds, but nothing of note. We also caught up with some of the kids by phone late in the day so that was nice too.

[emilestrange]

STORM THORGERSON

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Album Covers

10cc:

Sheet Music (1974)

The Original Soundtrack (1975)

How Dare You! (1976)

Deceptive Bends (1977)

Bloody Tourists (1978)

Greatest Hits 1972–1978 (1979)

Look Hear? (1980)

Mirror Mirror (1994)

AC/DC

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976) (international edition)

Alan Parsons:

Try Anything Once (1993)

On Air (1996)

The Time Machine (1999)

A Valid Path (2004)

The Alan Parsons Project

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976)

I Robot (1977)

Pyramid (1978)

Eve (1979)

Eye in the Sky (1982)

Ammonia Avenue (1984)

Al Stewart

Past, Present and Future (1973)

Modern Times (1975)

Year of the Cat (1976)

The Early Years (1977)

Time Passages (1978)

The Answer

New Horizon (2013)

Anthrax

Stomp 442 (1995)

Argent

Ring of Hands (1971)

In Deep (1973)

Ashra

Correlations (1979)

Audience

The House on the Hill (1971)

Lunch (1972)

You Can’t Beat ’em (1973)

Audioslave

Audioslave (2002)

Bad Company

Bad Company (1974)

Straight Shooter (1975)

Burnin’ Sky (1977)

Desolation Angels (1979)

Rough Diamonds (1982)

Be-Bop Deluxe

Drastic Plastic (1978)

Biffy Clyro:

Puzzle (2007)

“Saturday Superhouse” (2007)

“Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies” (2007)

“Folding Stars” (2007)

“Machines” (2007)

Only Revolutions (2009)

“That Golden Rule” (2009)

“The Captain” (2009)

“Lonely Revolutions” (2010)

Opposites (2013)

“Black Chandelier” (2013)

“Biblical” (2013)

“Opposite” (2013)

“Victory Over the Sun” (2013)

“Similarities” (2014)

Black Sabbath:

Technical Ecstasy (1976)

Never Say Die! (1978)

Brand X

Unorthodox Behaviour (1976)

Moroccan Roll (1977)

Livestock (1977)

Product (1979)

Do They Hurt? (1980)

Bruce Dickinson

Skunkworks (1996)

Catherine Wheel:

Chrome (1993)

Happy Days (1995)

Like Cats and Dogs (compilation) (1996)

Adam And Eve (1997)

Wishville (2000)

The Cranberries:

Bury the Hatchet (1999)

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001)

The Cult:

Electric (1987) (credited on the picture sleeve as “Art Direction by Storm Thorgerson”)

Cochise

Cochise (1970)

David Gilmour

David Gilmour (1978)

About Face (1984)

David Gilmour in Concert DVD (2002)

Def Leppard

High ‘n’ Dry (1981)

Deepest Blue

Late September (2004)

Disco Biscuits:

Planet Anthem (2010)

Dream Theater:

Falling into Infinity (1997)

“Once in a LIVEtime” (1998)

“5 Years in a Livetime” (1998)

The Dukes

The Dukes (1979)

Edgar Broughton Band

Edgar Broughton Band (1971)

Inside Out (1972)

Oora (1973)

A Bunch of 45s (1975)

Parlez-Vous English (1979)

Electric Light Orchestra

The Electric Light Orchestra (1971)

ELO 2 (1973)

On the Third Day (1973)

The Light Shines On (1977)

Ellis, Beggs, & Howard

Homelands (1989)

Ethnix

Home Is Where The Head Is (2002)

Europe

Secret Society (2006)

Fabulous Poodles

Mirror Stars (1978)

Flash

Flash (1972)

Out of Our Hands (1973)

Foreigner

4 (Labels only) (1981)

Gary Brooker

No More Fear of Flying (1979)

Godley & Creme

Freeze Frame (1979)

The Gods

Genesis (1968)

To Samuel a Son (1969)

Genesis

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)

A Trick of the Tail (1976)

Wind & Wuthering (1976)

…And Then There Were Three… (1978)

The Greatest Show on Earth

Horizons (1970)

The Going’s Easy (1970)

The Greatest Show on Earth (1975)

Greg Friedman

Can’t Talk Now (2013)

goodbyemotel

If (2014)

Goose

Synrise (2012)

Helloween

Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991)

Herman Rarebell

Nip in the Bud (1981)

Humble Pie

Town and Country (1969)

Thunderbox (1974)

Ian Dury and The Blockheads

Mr. Love Pants (1998)

John Wetton

Caught in the Crossfire (1980)

Korda Marshall

Now We Breathe (2015)

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin (1969)

Houses of the Holy (1973)

Presence (1976)

The Song Remains the Same (1976)

In Through the Out Door (1979)

Coda (1982)

Leisure Cruise

Leisure Cruise (2014)

Leo Sayer

Living in a Fantasy (1980)

The Mars Volta:

De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)

“Inertiatic ESP” single (2003)

“Televators” single (2003)

Frances the Mute (2005)

“The Widow” single (2005)

Amputechture (2006) (original artwork)

Megadeth:

Rude Awakening DVD (2002)

Mick Taylor

Mick Taylor (1979)

Mike Oldfield

Earth Moving (1989)

Earth Moving single (1989)

Mike Rutherford

Smallcreep’s Day (1980)

Muse:

Absolution (2003)

“Butterflies and Hurricanes” single (2004)

Black Holes and Revelations (2006)

“Uprising” single (2009)

Nazareth

Rampant (1974)

Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll (1976)

The Nice

Five Bridges (1970)

Elegy (1971)

Autumn ’67 – Spring ’68 (1972)

Nick Mason

Fictitious Sports (1981)

O.A.R.

Stories of a Stranger (2005)

The Offspring

Splinter (2003)

Paul McCartney

Tug of War (1982)

Peter Gabriel:

Peter Gabriel (1977) (“Car”)

Peter Gabriel (1978) (“Scratch”)

Peter Gabriel (1980) (“Melt”)

Pendulum

Immersion (2010)

Phish

Slip Stitch and Pass (1997)

The Pineapple Thief

Someone Here Is Missing (2010)

Pink Floyd:[20]

A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

More (1969)

Ummagumma (1969)

Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Meddle (1971)

Obscured by Clouds (1972)

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

A Nice Pair (1973)

Wish You Were Here (1975)

Animals (1977)

A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)

A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)[10]

Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)

Shine On (1992)[10]

The Division Bell (1994)

P*U*L*S*E (1995), including the blinking LED light that was featured in early CD packaging.[21]

Relics re-release (1996)

Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81(2000)

Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)

Oh, by the Way (2007)

The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door (2011)

The Plea

The Dreamers Stadium (2012)[22]

The Police

“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” (single) (1980)

Powderfinger

Golden Rule (2009)

Pretty Things

Parachute (1970)

Freeway Madness (1972)

Silk Torpedo (1974)

Savage Eye (1976)

Cross Talk (1980)

Program the Dead

Program The Dead (2005)

Quatermass

Quatermass (1970)

Rainbow

Difficult to Cure (1981)[9]

Straight Between the Eyes (1982)

Bent Out of Shape (1983)

Ralph McTell

Slide Away the Screen (1979)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Stadium Arcadium (2006) (unused)

Renaissance

Prologue (1972)

Ashes Are Burning (1973)

Turn of the Cards (1974)

Scheherazade and Other Stories (1975)

A Song for All Seasons (1978)

Rick Wright

Wet Dream (1978)

Broken China (1996)

Rival Sons

Pressure & Time (2011)

Robert Plant:

The Principle of Moments (1983)

“Big Log“ (single) (1983)

Roger Taylor

Fun in Space (1981)

Roy Harper

Lifemask (1973)

Valentine (1974)

Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion (1974)

HQ (1975)

Bullinamingvase (1977)

Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar (1977)

Musical Chairs (1977)

Scorpions

Lovedrive (1979)

Animal Magnetism (1980)

Crazy World (1990)

Shpongle

Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009)

Slow Earth

Latitude and 023 (2013)

Steve Hillage

Live Herald (1979)

Steve Miller Band:

Bingo! (2010)

Let Your Hair Down (2011)

Strawbs

Deadlines (1977)

Styx

Pieces of Eight (1978)

Cyclorama (2003)

Syd Barrett

The Madcap Laughs (1970)

Barrett (1970)

Syd Barrett (1974)

An Introduction to Syd Barrett (2010)

Toe Fat

Toe Fat (1970)

Toe Fat 2 (1971)

Thornley

Come Again (2004)

Tiny Pictures (2009)

Thunder

Laughing on Judgement Day (1992)

Behind Closed Doors (1995)

T. Rex

Electric Warrior (1971)

UFO

Phenomenon (1974)

Force It (1975)

No Heavy Petting (1976)

Lights Out (1977)

Obsession (1978)

Strangers in the Night (1979)

No Place to Run (1980)

The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent (1981)

Making Contact (1983)

UK

Danger Money (1979)

Umphrey’s McGee

Safety in Numbers (2006)

The Bottom Half (2007)

Uno

Uno (1974)

Villainy

Mode. Set. Clear. (2012)

Wax

American English (1987)

A Hundred Thousand in Fresh Notes (1989)

Ween

The Mollusk (1997)

Wishbone Ash

Pilgrimage (1971)

Argus (1972)

Wishbone Four (1973)

Live Dates (1973)

There’s the Rub (1974)

New England (1976)

Classic Ash (1977)

Front Page News (1977)

No Smoke Without Fire (1978)

Just Testing (1980)

Wings

Band on the Run (1973)

Venus and Mars (1975)

Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976)

Wings over America (1976)

London Town (1978)

Wings Greatest (1978)

Back to the Egg (1979)

The Wombats:

This Modern Glitch (2011)

XTC

Go 2 (1978)

Yes

Going for the One (1977)

Tormato (1978)

Yumi Matsutoya

Sakuban Oaisimashō (1981)

Younger Brother

Last Days of Gravity (2007)

Vaccine (2011)

Yourcodenameis:milo

Rapt. Dept. (2005)

17 (2005)

Ignoto (2005)

Music videos

Paul Young – “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” (1983)

Rainbow – “Street of Dreams” (1983)

Robert Plant – “Big Log” (1983)

Yes – “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (1983)

Intaferon – “Get Out of London” (1983)

Kevin Kitchen – “Tight Spot” (1984)

Nik Kershaw – “Wouldn’t It Be Good” (1984)

David Gilmour – “Blue Light” (1984)

David Gilmour – “All Lovers Are Deranged” (1984)

Nik Kershaw – “The Riddle” (1984)

Nik Kershaw – “Wide Boy (1984)

Nik Kershaw – “Don Quixote” (1985)

Belouis Some – “Imagination” (1985)

Belouis Some – “Some People” (1985)

Glass Tiger – “Thin Red Line” (1985)

Glass Tiger – “Someday” (1985)

Ministry – “Over the Shoulder” (1985)

The Cult – “Love Removal Machine” (1987)

Pink Floyd – “Learning to Fly” (1987)

Pink Floyd – “The Dogs of War” (1987)

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe – “Brother of Mine” (1989)

Bruce Dickinson – “Tattooed Millionaire” (1990)

Bruce Dickinson – “All the Young Dudes” (1990)

Helloween – “Kids of the Century” (1991)

Alan Parsons – “Turn It Up” (1993)

Pink Floyd – “High Hopes” (1994)

Richard Wright – “Night Of a Thousand Furry Toys” (1996)

The Designers Behind Our Favorite Album Covers STORM THORGERSON Album Covers 10cc: Sheet Music (1974) The Original Soundtrack (1975) How Dare You!