“Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Deluxe Edition)” by John Williams

A few weeks ago my dear friend SonicAdventure approached me for a really special collaboration project. A Deluxe Edition of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, containing music from both the official soundtrack and the “For Your Consideration” promo album that was published by Disney during the awards season. Sonic did all the audio wizardry (editing, mixing, mastering), while I was free to do anything with my custom cover art. And it was an absolute blast (as John Williams would call it), by far the most joyful cover making experience I’ve had so far. Naturally for this fan-release I revisited my initial custom…

“High-Rise” by Clint Mansell

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…

“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” by Elliot Goldenthal

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within turns 15 this year, and it hasn’t aged that well to be honest. The visuals were groundbreaking back then, but don’t get anyone excited about nowadays. The score on the other hand is still one of Goldenthal’s best. And that is saying something, because Elliot Goldenthal himself is still one of the very best of his game, even though his film score output has slowed down significantly. So, on the occasion of this anniversary my dear audio-engineering friend SonicAdventure decided to brush off the dust and polish up this forgotten diamond. And I was graced with helping out on…

“Gods of Egypt” by Marco Beltrami

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…

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” by John Williams

October 30th 2012, 9:15 pm I’m lying in my bed with a cold and a headache, staring at my iPhone in pure shock. I’m reading a text message from my pal which says “Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4 billion. New trilogy coming. Episode VII due for 2015.” I have the weirdest fever dreams that night and it takes me a few days to fully realize the impact of that news. What follows are months and months of speculations, discussions, phantasies and dreams. What an amazing time to be a Star Wars fan… October 20th 2015, 8:15 pm I fire up…