Pulse
One of the joys of buying a CD is enjoying the album cover and the art that accompanies it, and Storm Thorgerson has been a recent obsession. I started getting really interested in Storm’s work when a year ago, I bought my first Pink Floyd album, Pulse, and thought to myself, wow, just what is this piece of work trying to say? When something gets me worked up like that, I get all curious and I just have to — HAVE TO — find out!
Pink Floyd
Storm has directed most of the album art/posters/design for Pink Floyd, sealing the band’s identity as that of being otherworldly. On a post-exam spree, I had decided to (undeservingly) reward myself with Mind Over Matter, a hardcover compilation of Pink Floyd imagery by Storm. It’s a solid coffee-table book and a treasure trove at that for not only documenting the history of the band, but also tracing very detailedly on how its personality and creativity get absorbed into Storm’s art. He doesn’t call himself a photographer or designer or artist even as he is all three, rather he sees himself very much an image maker, that is to say, he has an idea and conveys it into an image, no matter the method. I love the way he emphasises on that because too often, we get so caught up with the technicalities of a certain genre that we fail to see the possibilities of going beyond it. The irony is that the lack of technology back then gave him the boldness to try out everything, anything.
Mind over Matter
Dark Side of the Moon
Storm has been designing, creating and art directing since the 60s till today, and when seeing the visual identity of Pink Floyd, you can pretty much chart the social changes happening through the times, as if these albums have become historical documents in themselves. An example is the album Dark Side of the Moon, which consists of a simple image of refracted light. During the time this album was being made, photography was becoming a huge, trendy thing, and Pink Floyd wanted to go against the grain of it, wanted something more graphical than photographical. At the same time, the band was starting to play a lot with stage lights for their live shows, the effect of which was to transcend audiences away from reality into another dimension. Thus the final artwork of a light prism on the cover of Dark Side — a product of the times (of increasing technology and how it enables us with multiple realities), of concepts and of Pink Floyd’s ambitious identity.
Syd Barrett then and after. He passed away in 2006.
The other beauty is the album art direction for Wish You Were Here. Most fans would know that the album is inevitably linked to Syd who had left the band due to his internal struggles and depression. But during a particular band practice, specifically for the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond (a direct dedication to Syd), the man strangely appeared in the room after not seeing the band in years. He just sat there stone-cold, no longer the crazy Syd they used to know, and Storm saw that as Syd being present, yet so absent.
The Diver for Wish You Were Here
The designer then began to play on that idea. He also realised that music-making in a band has got a lot to do with the concept of presence/absence — families would be physically present for them but they were emotionally absent, Pink Floyd were present together, but because they had differences (and ultimately split), they were emotionally absent during much of the process and merely went through the motion for the sake of togetherness. Stay together for the kids, one would say — only this time, the kid was the product of music — so is the parent present or absent? Storm ultimately came up with a few visual ideas, one of which was The Diver. He explains that in this work, there is a dive without a splash, an action without its trace — present, or absent?
Part of the Wish You Were Here visual process also included The Swimmer which wasn’t packaged in the eventual album, but is still incredibly note-worthy. In this piece of a man swimming into sand, it’s not about the absence of water, Storm says, but the absence of awareness (the swimmer hadn’t noticed that he left the sea!) and the absence of purpose (the man just keeps swimming on and on with blind intent, going nowhere). This was perhaps Storm’s interpretation of the Floyd’s emotional/mental health at that time, and to translate it into a stunning visual is simply amazing. It also turned out to be a cautionary tale to life.
The Swimmer
Created with little respect for technology, Storm’s work has been extremely edifying in that manner. Digital manipulation, duplication and shortcuts weren’t that advanced during the 1970s or 80s — unlike today — and Storm was making all these images through different methods of photography, cutting and pasting, and even taking heaps of effort to set up the stage. So for albums like A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Storm and team actually laid and put out all 700 beds on the beach! Which is why he is sometimes better known as a performance artist than a visual maker — there is nothing he would not try, and anything he puts his finger on has got to be larger than life.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
But technology was something Storm constantly struggled with — not because he couldn’t master it, rather, he would question — is it for better or for worse? How can technology be good if it reduces vinyl (where there was solid album art) to mere mp3s (where album art is completely rendered non-existent)? He adds in jest that mp3s put him out of money since he is an album artist, but he also emphasises that music is a whole experience that cannot be reduced to just listening — it has to be possessed, owned in an all-encompassing way, and compressing things into bytes no longer allows for that.
Light and video made things real and unreal for audiences — this constant theme of surreality permeates in the work of the band and thereafter in Storm’s art
Still, the fact that Pink Floyd was so experimental with music and light technology (most aptly represented in the album cover of Delicate Sound of Thunder — with the birds as metaphor for song and the bulbs as a direct translation for light) meant that technology turned out to be a double-edged sword for them. In the trajectory of the album art of the band, there is a visual sense of experimentation and progressiveness that is only possible through technology, but its rawness reveals a stubborn refusal or resistance to conform to the cleanliness, organisation and perfectionism of computer or technology-generated graphics.
Delicate Sound of Thunder
I wish I could bring a Storm Thorgerson exhibit to Singapore one day — it’s running in Sydney now and you can catch glimpses of his other artworks here. He has also art-directed for Muse, Led Zeppelin, The Mars Volta, Audioslave and The Cranberries, amongst others.
One of my favourites -- Eye 2 Eye for The Scorpions
His creations usually document the story of the band — be it their energy, emotions, attitudes, processes, relationships or simply, their music. Which means to say he takes time off to comprehend the immaterial aspect or journey of these creators and then to materialise them through an idea or a concept — a much more authentic process of visual making that the speed of time (or rather, the compression of time) these days doesn’t quite allow for. For Storm, ideas area container for a story. Now, people expect a work of art or design so quickly with the justification that technology is supposed to churn out something perfect and good in a short time — we get ideas in a snap, but then where do these ideas come from? What more can a piece of work show us besides concepts? What is it trying to tell us other than being a mere representation? To appropriately borrow a title off Pink Floyd, would it just be another brick in the wall?
Understanding the work of Storm has also come in timely as I take a sabbatical from technology for a short trip to Europe. Am hoping there is enough time for a visit to the St Paul’s Gallery too, which specialises in album art — pretty amazing huh? There’re still other works I’d love to share in the near future, but also because everytime my mum visits this space, she says she learns nothing. “Just what are you saying in your blog?!” she asks in genuine frustration. Well then, I be testing her on Storm Thorgerson in a while. God speed!
"Naivete and enthusiasm are great bedfellows. I plunged into the cover for Saucerful without a second thought. I didn't know any better and what doubts I had were soon engulfed by waves of keenness. I was so keen, it was sickening." - Storm T.
