“High-Rise” by Clint Mansell

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Ben Wheatley’s new film High-Rise is a highly stylized, urban dystopia. A parable of greed and class society, at times chockingly funnny, at other times quite thought-provoking. It takes the same line as Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and couldn’t be any more relevant these days, even though the literary original is over four decades old. It is also a prime example of a music album I was immediately interested in solely based on its eye-catching artwork. Of course that statement was only true until I got to know the man behind it… Clint Mansell. I’ve always been a fan of his music – after all I dedicated my very…

“Firewatch” by Chris Remo

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The official album artwork (#1) for the recently released soundtrack of Firewatch is damn straight perfect. It cleverly combines the two main aspects of the game, which are the all encompassing national park scenery and the highly immersive walkie-talkie narrative. I really like this artwork and would love to know who’s responsible for it, so I could mail them a bagful of Austrian apples. What I do know though is that Olly Moss – creator of Mondo’s legendary Star Wars poster trilogy – was responsible for the spectacular art design of the game and it would totally be a sin not to use it…

“Gods of Egypt” by Marco Beltrami

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Writing in superlatives week after week does detract from credibility. When every other design or album art is amazing, brilliant and what not, it can become tiresome after a while. So maybe that’s the most positive thing about todays entry. That it allows me to balance things out a bit. A wise man once said, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour, and boy is this entry anchored on the sour end of the scale. And I’m not talking about the music here, mind you. After all this is still a blog dedicated to design and the work of visual…

“The Hateful Eight” by Ennio Morricone

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II‘ve had no plans for this one at all. But with The Revenant under my belt I just couldn’t let go of the other snowbound epic from this years winter season. Also it’s a brand-new Ennio Morricone score and you don’t say no to such a thing, do you!? Without any intention of deliberate puns, I’d like to start off this entry with a little warm up round. My remake of the original artwork (#1) was an obvious matter for various reasons. But mainly for the illegible composer’s credits. The alternate take (#2) is not by me, but by my custom covers creating fella Terry McCutchen. Instead of…

“The Revenant” by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, Bryce Dessner

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Alejandro González Iñárritu’s survival tale The Revenant is a real piece of art, rightfully racing for a couple of Oscars at this years Academy Awards ceremony. But it’s not necessarily the end product that left me absolutely astonished. The films making-of is easily as fascinating (if not more!) as the supposedly real-life story they are telling. Shot in the arctic cold of the Canadian and Argentinian outback, using only natural light in locations with minimal daylight hours, and pushing everyone involved to their painful limits, The Revenant is an outstanding achievement. Last december Emmanuel Lubezki published a series of photographs from the wilderness shoot and they’re breathtakingly beautiful. They also ignited my final spark of inspiration to come…