"While the full album was still being worked on, Steve wanted to send a four track demo CD to Ron Boots at Groove Unlimited (VoLt's label) to see if he would be interested in the material. To make this presentable, we needed some cover art.

After toying with traditional (and non-traditional) depictions of the Phoenix, I decided this was too obvious. It also became clear that the Phoenix was a very popular theme at the time. So I decided to try a more abstract approach.

I had been experimenting with fractals prior to this and thought maybe I could produce something interesting. I processed a "Mandelbrot" fractal numerous times to see what would happen. This resulted in the red curved and feathery effect which I thought had certain bird like attributes. 

The three white orbs shown are highlighted stars which form part of the "Phoenix" constellation, meant to represent the three band members. The smaller blue star represents the output of the band (the album) but is not part of the same constellation. 

There was no booklet for the demo. The back cover had a smaller version of the front cover and a listing of the four tracks which were included:
  1 Spanish Storm
  2 Somewhere out there
  3 APH *
  4 Clockwork Faeries
* APH was the working title for the track "Inner City". My understanding is that this stood for "Alan's Pet Hate". That's another story for another time....

The cover for the final album was developed further to include a fuller "wingspan" and formed part of a four page booklet.

The inside of the booklet features colourised photos taken in the rehearsal studio where we filmed the video for the title track - four small colourised photos (one of each member and a group shot), plus the full spread group shot faded for the background.

I was pleased that I was able to make this additional contribution to the album and that Steve and Alan approved it. 

Drumming? Nah, nobody wants to hear about my drumming...."


The constellation "Phoenix" is located in the southern hemisphere of the sky. It is completely visible in latitudes south of 32 degrees
from September through November. The highlighted stars are:

• Kappa Phoenicis

       White Subgiant Star    

       Mag. 3.94

• Mu Phoenicis             

       Yellow Giant Star        

       Mag. 4.59

• Lambda-1 Phoenicis  

       White Dwarf Star        

       Mag. 4.76