Sonic Visions

SONIC VISION 06:

Artist: Gwenaël Rattke(Art) -

Eloise Leigh(Layout\Design)

Year: 1979–1981

Musician: Patrick Cowley

Song-Album: “Pajama Party Massacre” · Hard Ware ·

“Pajama Party Massacre” is experimental disco, synth funk and punk, and it plays like a horror movie about a sleepover: how the party started and how it ended. It’s unreleased Cowley, with his own vocals, pulled from the archive over 40 years after his death and released on what would have been his 75th birthday.

You can put it on repeat and enjoy the wonderful musical world of Patrick Cowley. And after that play the album “Hard Ware” on repeat. And continue with everything else he made.

Now, look at it.

The artwork of Hard Ware takes us into a world of circuits, machines and futuristic visions. Featuring a hand-airbrushed, circuitboard-inspired design, the sleeve feels like a glimpse into the electronic imagination of the early 1980s — when technology was opening up new possibilities for sound, and the future still felt unknown.

The artwork was created by Gwenaël Rattke, with layout by Eloise Leigh. Its intricate, mechanical patterns bring a visual dimension to Cowley’s experimental electronic world, connecting the machinery behind the music with the human imagination that brings it to life.

There is something fitting about the contrast: a design inspired by circuitry surrounding music that feels so physical, unpredictable and alive. The machines may produce the sounds, but it is the imagination behind them that makes them move.

SONIC VISION 05:

Artist: DIMITRIOS KARATZIOS

Year: 2026

Musician: Sweater on Polo

Song-Album:"Almighty Grand Essence" · L.I.E.S. Records ·

“House Rockin Dream” is a playful acid house track by the producer Sweater on Polo , released in 2026 on one of the best underground labels around, L.I.E.S. Records (Long Island Electrical Systems) from New York. It’s the eighth song on the debut LP, Almighty Grand Essence.

It takes you to a dark, sweaty dance floor, 1988, New York or Chicago, a Monday night around 3 o’clock. The music is slowing down, but it’s still playful enough for everybody to lose themselves completely in the dance and the House Rockin Dream.

Raw house sound, for you to feel the origin story.

Now LOOK,

The cover artwork for Almighty Grand Essence is credited to DIMITRIOS KARATZIOS The illustration feels like a psychedelic comic pulled from another dimension: a cat dressed as a wizard, rockets flying across the scene, factories pumping smoke into the sky and a city engulfed in flames. At the top of the stairs, a speaker sits almost like a sacred object, turning music itself into something worth worshipping.

There’s a deliberate clash between the playful cartoon style and the chaotic, almost apocalyptic imagery. It captures the rebellious, slightly absurd spirit of underground dance music. where fantasy, noise and the dance floor all collide. The artwork doesn’t try to look polished or futuristic. It feels raw, hand-drawn and full of character, just like the kind of house music that invites you to forget the outside world for a while.

SONIC VISION 04:

Artist: Grant Fultano
Year: 1993

Musician: Orbital

Song-Album: “Lush 3-2”-Orbital 2 (The Brown Album)

You may not have lived the 90s raves, dancing in the open fields of England to the defining tracks of acid house, but you can still feel them by closing your eyes and listening to Orbital. LUSH 3-2 comes from the second album of brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll, released in 1993, an era when music could take you to outer space and let you feel the Earth as a whole. The build-up is slow and layered, with beats, acid patterns, mesmerizing voices, and nothing unnecessary, exactly the way Orbital engraved themselves in everyone who understood that dancing is freedom.

And then there’s the cover.

The sleeve for Orbital 2 was designed by Grant Fultano, with photography by Sally Harding. The artwork is almost aggressively simple: a textured brown field, an old-fashioned floor polisher or industrial machine sitting in the centre, and almost nothing else. No futuristic spectacle. No obvious attempt to explain the music.

Yet somehow, it works.

The earthy, industrial image became inseparable from the record itself — a perfect example of how an album cover doesn't need to literally illustrate the music to become part of its world. Sometimes one strange image is enough to make you want to pick up the record and find out what's inside.

SONIC VISION 03:

Artist: Emma Verhulst
Year: 2021

Musician: Aili and Belgium’s Transistorcake

Song-Album: “Dansu”

‘Dansu’ is a song by Belgian-Japanese artist Aili and Belgium’s Transistorcake. The pair worked through lockdown (2020-2021) on a pop track about dancing the night away while the world had come to a standstill. A bass-toned guitar sets the tempo for the Japanese and English lyrics, while layers of instruments and synths add dimension after dimension of pure beauty. It was released on Eskimo Recordings as part of the ‘Dansu EP’, and it could get even a non-dancer moving. No need to categorize it: just close your eyes and dance.

Now look!

Behind the visual identity of Dansu is Emma Verhulst, a Belgian artist whose artwork brings a completely different dimension to the release.

At first glance, the cover feels almost like a graphic puzzle — bold geometric forms, irregular black shapes and a deliberately limited palette creating something playful, strange and slightly unsettling. Large outlined lettering dominates the composition, while the dark angular form underneath sits somewhere between a fragmented figure and an abstract architectural structure. Small red Japanese characters cut through the image, adding another visual rhythm and connecting the artwork to the Japanese language and cultural influences present throughout the music.

What makes the cover particularly interesting is its raw, imperfect quality. The hand-drawn elements, stark contrasts and unusual proportions give it movement and personality rather than trying to make the music look polished or conventional. It almost feels as if the artwork itself is caught mid-dance — fragmented, energetic and constantly shifting.

The result is a cover that doesn’t simply illustrate Dansu. It creates its own visual world around it.

SONIC VISION 02:

Artist: Alex Seamens
Year: 2026

Musician: Brixx & Stockholm Syndrome AU

Song-Album: “T.S.C. Systems (Extended Mix)”

A collaboration between Brixx (Australian-born and Berlin-based producer) and Stockholm Syndrome AU (Melbourne-based DJ and Producer, Iain Mac aka Pyz). The song is part of the compilation album Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS, which was curated by Curses and released via Eskimo Recordings. A true next wave mix of acid, electro pop and electro punk that opens the dance floor in unexpected directions. And if you like this one, dig into the whole Next Wave Acid Punx series — Curses’ acclaimed run of compilations for Eskimo Recordings, started in 2021 and closed out with TROIS from 2026, each one discovering old and new gems from the darker, hidden corners of club music.

Now, look at it.

Behind the visual side of Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS is Alex Seamens, also known as Cranks — a New York-based DJ, producer, label co-founder and artist deeply connected to the underground electronic scene. Seamens was part of the core team behind Safer At Night alongside Curses, and has also created artwork for releases across the electronic music world.

For TROIS, his artwork brings another layer of the same world the music comes from. The blue, hand-drawn bodybuilder figure feels strange, physical and almost otherworldly — a visual counterpart to the compilation's collision of acid, electro, EBM, industrial and rave sounds. It's a good reminder that in club culture, the music doesn't exist alone; the visual language around it is part of the experience too.

Artist: Markéta Skálková
Year: 2026

Musician: Uruguayan electronic

Song-Album: “Is It Me?” , “Unfailing Love”

“Is It Me?” is the second track on the EP “Unfailing Love” by Uruguayan electronic artist Michelle, released on July 31, 2026, via Kalahari Oyster Cult. Producing since 2015, this is her Kalahari debut. The song sets the scene with repetitive vocals that mumble something mysterious and worth knowing so you can dive into a world of dark techno and electro rhythms that instantly teleport you into the best dance club ever. You just need to close your eyes and let go, of time and space.

Now, look at it.

The visual world of Unfailing Love was created by multidisciplinary Czech artist, tattooist and graphic designer Markéta Skálková, also known as Kétka. Moving between digital art, print and body art, her work sits somewhere between playful, surreal and dark.

For Unfailing Love, her illustration creates a visual world that feels strangely at home with Michelle’s sound — mysterious, playful and just a little unsettling. Her approach to storytelling can also be seen in Houba (Mushroom), a self-conceived and illustrated fable with six different endings.

SONIC VISION 01: