The cover painting of Resonance

After Sandor and I had settled on a title, I turned my attention to album cover photography.  I've done the photography on all my album covers, and Sandor asked if I'd do the cover for Resonance, to which I replied that it would be my honor.  After the recording sessions were completed, I set to work on the photography.  What I had in mind was a subject or setting, in nature, of something which would represent two separate halves; each have fully independent; yet creating a confluence; invoking an amalgam of the two which would transmogrify into a third entity or object.  This entity or object would fully stand on its own, fully independent; yet which could not exist without the two discrete halves from which it originated.  I felt that this would be a salient analog of the music created by Sandor and myself. 

It seemed like a simple concept; one which should be rather easy to photograph.

I shot around 200 photos trying to capture and/or illustrate this concept.  I winnowed the pile down to fewer than a dozen, and sent these to Sandor to get his take on them.  While many of the photos were very good as photos, they weren't quite right as the album cover.  I was not fully confident that any of them truly captured what I was trying to illustrate.  I had not told Sandor of the concept of my subject so as not to precondition him or his expectations or photographic interpretations.  He rejected all the candidates I sent to him, which neither surprised or disappointed me, as I wasn't really happy with any of them as album covers.  Although some were beautiful and a few have found their way into the Images pages, I still was not happy with any of them as the album cover for Resonance. 

Displayed on a small landing above the stairs which lead to the studio are two of my wife Therese's paintings.  As I was leaving the studio one night, still feeling unsettled about the album cover, I randomly glanced at one of the paintings as I so often do when descending the stairs.  My eyes popped open as I realized I was looking at a painted representation of exactly what I'd been trying unsuccessfully to capture on digital film.  I immediately grabbed my camera, captured a few shots of it, and e-mailed one to Sandor without telling him who had painted it or why.  His response was quick and firm: he loved it and thought it was the ideal cover image for Resonance.  This matched my reaction, but again, I did not tell him that, as I still did not want to precondition his perceptions or reactions.  So, after much searching, we had our album cover, one which we both felt perfectly represented the music of Resonance.  Thank you, Therese, for letting us use your wonderful painting.