MAGNIFICATION

Spotify

“These are the days that we will talk about…”

When I was invited to design the cover and sleeve art for Magnification, I was admittedly overwhelmed by the massive shoes I’d be filling – not just Roger Dean’s visually gorgeous legacy, but also the legacy of artistic legends Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorguson. As a YES fan, I was fully aware of Roger’s indelible place as the sixth member of the band. His paintings continue to be known around the world as an unmistakable companion to YESmusic.

Fueled by the youthful hubris of my late 20s, however, I accepted the offer to be a substitute – not a replacement for Roger – despite the enormity of the challenge. But I wasn’t alone. I was fortunate to have joined forces with Jon Anderson who served as co-art director, suggesting themes and narratives that could tie-in with the vibe of the album.

Initially, I developed CG models with a steampunk aesthetic: rusty cogs and steam-generated, late Victorian machinery. After seeing one of my work-in-progress renders, Jon suggested replacing the metal textures of the model with glass (magnifying glass). He dubbed the spheroid array the “Interdimensional Reality Machine,” capable of magnifying enough harmonic energy to open gateways into other dimensions of the multiverse. Jon would later write a short story for an older version of his website titled “The Machine” about what was nicknamed “the IDR.”

While I initially developed the IDR for the cover as part of the Magnification logo, it ended up being featured alone on the back cover of the sleeve, accompanied by a faint image of the love of our would-be protagonist’s life.

As we developed the backstory, I designed an ancient analog to the IDR known as a Talisman – call it the alpha to the IDR’s omega. The prehistoric and the futuristic. My thought was that these rock statues were relics from Jon’s masterpiece Olias of Sunhillow universe – relatives of the familiar symbol created by David Fairbrother-Roe for the cover. In this fictional world, there are many Talismans – Talismen? Some are a few feet tall, others are colossal, each radiating different levels of harmonic power through levitating metal rings. The cover also included an array of stellar charts, the centerpiece being Nicolaus Copernicus’s heliocentric model placing the Sun at the center of the known universe. (“If we were flowers, we would worship the Sun…”)

The sketches on the inside pages represent notes discovered by our protagonist in the process of constructing the first functional IDR. Eventually, we planned on expanding the narrative to further albums, including Symphonic Live which also features a Talisman. I liked the idea of starting in the future with Magnification and returning to the distant past with Symphonic Live. (Nerdy art thing: You’ll also notice the purple cover of Magnification and green cover of Symphonic Live are complementary colors.)

One of the words that kept circulating through my head as I worked was “mysterious.” As a fan myself, part of the magic of YES covers (or Hipgnosis covers or Rush covers by the great Hugh Syme) is to page through the sleeve, study the cover in fine detail, and speculate what it all meant. To me, it magnified the imagination, magnified the experience, generating debates among fellow fans with endless possible theories. As album art was shrinking in size and therefore relevance, I wanted to provide that same experience for YESfans: the mystery.

I’m immensely grateful to the band, its management, and especially Mercury Studios for the opportunity to present updated editions of the Magnification cover art that reflects my original vision, upgraded – “magnified” – for modern screens. I’m even more grateful to have been included in such a beautiful and historic era in the continuing YES saga.

Bob Cesca
Artist: Magnification, Symphonic Live, Conspiracy: The Unknown

Bob’s original vision of the cover is seen here in this alternate version featuring the “IDR” machine with interdimensional spheres.