Squaring the Circle

Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Wings, Peter Gabriel… these 1970s rock kings all turned to the design studio Hipgnosis to create iconic record sleeves. Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell bonded during a police drug raid in the late sixties when their mutual friends – the core of what would become Pink Floyd – fled the scene in indecent haste. Po and Storm stayed and toughed it out, became inseperable pals, and eventually co-conspirators in the business of music imagery. Together, they concocted the cow on the sleeve of Floyd’s Atomic Heart… the flaming handshake on Wish You Were Here… the prism on Dark Side of the Moon, to name but three.

Clearly a labour of love, this doc from Anton Corbijn (who has created art work for U2, Depeche Mode, Tom Waits and The Rolling Stones, among many others) is a must for fans of classic rock, chock full of wonderful behind the scenes anecdotes and interviews with the likes of Robert Plant, Dave Gilmour and Paul McCartney. Even if you are too young to have fetishized record sleeves, it’s fascinating to explore the creative alchemy between sound and vision, corporate branding and artistic independence.

A treat for anyone with a taste for rock, for rock imagery and for the glories that can be found in that piece of cardboard wrapped around a record.

Steve Pond, The Wrap