Muse

Somewhere in chaos theory is expressed the idea that merely the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the global system can cause dramatic disturbance (hurricanes) in another part of the... read more global system. We took this all rather directly and imagined storm clouds (forgive the pun) gathering and appearing briefly in the shape of large butterflies. I have to say I thought this idea was a bit simplistic until our intrepid retoucher, the great Badger, wove his magic computer wand and neatly transformed cumulus into butterfly clouds, passing unsuspectingly over the summer fields of Cambridgeshire.

Muse favoured an exotic location for the cover of Black Holes and Revelations to show our modern version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. These harbingers of doom were now dressed in appropriate... read more suits, in order to represent the four greatest ills of mankind - in medieval times these were famine, plague, pestilence etc but in our contemporary world we decided (in our infinite wisdom) that the four greatest ills were paranoia, intolerance, narcissism and greed. The location is in Bardenas, Spain and is a wondrous place, such that we took several versions in a variety of differing locations. The version in AV40 is the same in principle as the published album cover, but in a slightly different spot.

Matt Bellamy of Muse performing at Islington Academy to release their album Absolution.