Since the dawn of modernism,visual and music productionhave had a particularly intimate relationship. From Luigi Russolo s 1913 Futurist manifestoL Arte dei Rumori(The Art of Noise) to Marcel Duchamp s 1925 double-sided discsRotoreliefs, the 20th century saw ever more fertile exchange between sounds and shapes, marks and melodies, and different fields of composition and performance.In Francesco Spampinato sunique anthology of artists record covers, we discover the rhythm of thisparticular cultural history. The book presents 500 covers and records by visual artists from the 1950s through to today, exploring howmodernism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, postmodernism,and various forms ofcontemporary artpractice have all informed this collateral field of visual production and supported the mass distribution of music withdefining imagery that swiftly and suggestively evokes an aural encounter.Along the way, we findJean-Michel Basquiats urban hieroglyphs for his own Tartown record label,Banksys stenciled graffiti for Blur,Damien Hirsts symbolic skull for the Hours, and a skeweredSalvador Dalíbutterfly on Jackie Gleason sLonesome Echo. There are insightful analyses and fact sheets alongside the covers listing the artist, performer, album name, label, year of release, and information on the original artwork. Interviews with Tauba Auerbach, Shepard Fairey, Kim Gordon, Christian Marclay, Albert Oehlen, and Raymond Pettibon add personal accounts on the collaborative relationship between artists and musicians.
