Artist: Benge
Title: 20 Systems
Label: Expanding Records
Year: 2008
Designer: Paul Merritt, photography by Paul Edwards and Ben Edwards, layout by Daniel Edwards
Type of music: Electronic
Notes: Benge’s Twenty Systems is an example of good rather than great design. My (small) reservations are that the instrument photography is rather pedestrian and I wonder why the artist’s name is placed at the crease on the front? However, I do love the amount of information it presents, the manner in which it is presented and the concept behind it.
Each of the twenty tracks is named for the synthesizer that it was played on. The CD is placed at the back of the jewel case-sized hardback book in which there are introductions by Scanner and Benge as well as pages and images for each track and a small gallery of close-up photographs. The whole thing is information-rich and satisfyingly focused in a way that’s infinitely more pleasurable than scrabbling around on the web for relevant information. And the music is an other-worldly delight.
Thanks to Cargo for the review copy.