Opposites

his trio of archival inkjet original prints are a product of Biffy Clyro’s fruitful artistic relationship with Storm Thorgerson. Only one set of prints signed by Storm Thorgerson remains in stock. The remainder of the edition carries the StormStudios emboss and signatures. The band return to Storm for the cover of their 2013 album Opposites, continuing the successful relationship that produced the artwork for Saturday Superhouse, Puzzle and Only Revolutions.

The cover is supposed to depict the oldest living tree in the world, located in Chile.

“I loved the original image of the tree, and I got thinking about how strong the roots must be, and how strong my band is – how we can deal with anything, because we have each other”. Simon Neil, Biffy Clyro.

Storm chose Iceland for its waterfalls:

“which struck me as suitably forceful imagery for the band, and secondly to locate diverse terrains adjacent viz desert and verdant pastures.

“Simon had a similar idea to one I had been nursing, namely a tree of life […] for one album. So I suggested a tree of death for the other album […] I wanted trees to be the same on both albums, but in two different locations with different objects hanging upon them: one to represent the interconnections of things – tree of life, positive – and one to represent the disconnectedness – tree of death, negative. So, mirrors which reflect, and scissors which sever. Biffy Clyro suggested the bones, to make three.

“Now the tree had to be man made and taken to Iceland […] The hanging objects are central – many cultures have them – often called votive or wishing trees, intended to warn visitors of sacred ground or as offerings to appease the gods. Red Indians use eagle feathers, in Japan they use handwritten notes, in Turkey an evil eye, in Hungary padlocks and so on. These objects are the defining ingredient in my opinion. 

“Biffy and/or label didn’t like the upright tree thinking it too weedy, too 2 dimensional, not rock n’ roll enough. […] I thought of an old tree, thousands of years old, enduring a prevailing wind forever, thus bent over at a severe angle and darkened and pitted […] thus there are three covers: one for each separate album and one for the combined double.” Storm, Feb 22

Authentication

Each print in this set of three prints has been authenticated with the official emboss of StormStudios and of hgEditions.

The Bones tree in each set has been signed in pencil, either by Storm Thorgerson or by StormStudios (Rupert Truman, Peter Curzon, Dan Abbott).