Rock Meets Academia in National Concept Album Art Competition

Portland,  Maine-based Atlantis Found Publishing Inc. announces the launch of  “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) Online Album Art Competition. The contest seeks digital visual artwork submissions to illustrate the song lyrics of Conceptual Artist James Thomas Fielding.

The contest is limited to the U.S. , Canada and the U.K.

The juried art competition, which seeks to establish a new multimedia artform  based on rock “Concept Albums,” offers $6,000 in cash prizes to be awarded to three finalists in two categories: Best Songbook Jacket and Best Album Jacket.

The public will select the winners by voting online at the contest website www.WordsWithoutVoices.com .

The “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) series combines Art, Music, Language, and Internet Technology, and will be aimed toward the youth market, especially college art instructors and students who study Advertising, Visual Arts, Creative Writing, English, Graphic Design, Multimedia, Music, and Web Design.

Says Maine resident Fielding, 51, “This competition places more emphasis on imagination than knowledge, and students in many fields of study will benefit from both result-oriented and experiential learning.”

Fielding says “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES(™)” is not so much an attempt to resurrect the concept album as to preserve and explore its possibilities as a viable artform.

 “The release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 should have signaled the beginning of a new era in album composition,” says Fielding, “instead it was a rare high point in a field more interested in making money than exploring art. In the 40 years since Sgt. Pepper’s release, modern pop and rock music have been limited enormously by formula formats and commercialism.”

According to Fielding, Green Day’s American Idiot is a good recent example of the “concept album,” even though it wasn’t marketed as such.

Fielding admits that Atlantis Found’s agenda—to elevate an artform which reached it’s creative zenith by the mid-1970’s, is ambitious. “Staples of yesteryear such as concept albums and rock operas, like The Who’s Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick --examples of the lyrical art elevated--are practically unheard of in today's bottom-line, we-don't-have-the-budget, we-don't-take-chances climate,” Fielding says.

Still, he believes the potential appeal of concept albums ranges from “15-year-old heavy-metal headbangers to college professors with PhD’s in literature.”

 “Why hasn’t rock music received more credibility in academic circles?” he asks. “The short answer is because true art is never the lowest common denominator of a society, but the highest.”

Fielding is seeking artwork to illustrate the titles of 25 Songbook Jackets and 125 Album covers, which range in style from country, gospel, and progressive rock to death metal.

 “The original canvas I had in mind was the 33 rpm LP record cover, from back in the days when vinyl album covers were considered works of art. But today, everyone has a PC…so I want the artist to think of his or her computer monitor as a blank canvas.”

The analogy of album covers to paintings seemed natural, so Fielding decided to feature all the artwork submissions at the www.WordsWithoutVoices.com website in an online environment called, fittingly, the “Gallery Of The Mind’s Eye.”

The initial “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) contest features no music, just the combination of visual artwork and Songbook, Album and Song titles.

Even though there is no musical accompaniment in this initial competition, Fielding says the combination of language and artwork can produce powerful results. “All concept albums reveal a story,” he says, “whether by narrative structure or just a sequence of select songs.”

Lyrically, Fielding’s concept albums range from narrative-style song collections (The Rock Apocalypse, American Scream) to those based loosely by subject themes (Elegance & Decay) which include gospel, political and protest songs. Artworks which best convey the themes and atmospheres of each collection of titles will get first consideration for prize money.

While the contest is open to “anyone who is creative,” state contest restrictions apply. Entry fees are $10 for one entry in one category, $15 to enter both. All submissions will be displayed at WordsWithout Voices. com. Final deadline for the competition is August 31, 2007.

J.T. Fielding is a conceptual artist, freelance writer, rock critic, lyricist, singer, songwriter and musician. He has produced over 500 musical compositions and 5,000 song lyrics in a 35-year career.

Contact Information:
Jim Fielding

Atlantis Found Publishing Inc.

PO Box 9546 Portland, ME. 04112

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www.wordswithoutvoices.com