Amenophis were a German prog band who in 1983 released their only album in the original line-up. Unlike the rise of neo-prog at the time, this is pure symphonic prog.

The LP was released privately in an edition that cannot have been more than a few thousand copies. It was released on CD in the 1990s.

Besides loving the music, I’ve always loved the lettering of the band name. A bit bold, bit still rounded and not too harsh, the different top and bottom serifs on the S. The slight bend in the N or the P make it almost friendly. The typeface is Letraset’s Bramley.

Hubert Fischer is credited with the cover design, but I feel that is more about the artwork than the lettering. Rosalia Vollmuth (most likely related to bass player Wolfgang Vollmuth) is credited for the idea for the illustration (“Illustrationsidee” in German).

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover

Talk Talk is of course the British band with Mark Hollis who were active between 1981 and 1991. The Party's Over was their first album, released in 1982. For the 1997 re-issues of their first four albums, the covers were slightly changed to have a matching design.

All their albums have a very stylish design with a colourful drawing and simple but recognisable lettering and layout, which was even stronger in this series of four re-issues.

For the covers of these 1997 re-issues, Univers Ultra Condensed was used. The band name and album title are in all-capitals on the front, back, and spine. The back cover have the track listing in Univers Ultra Condensed as well, but now in title case.

Univers Ultra Condensed is used even more. The inside of the booklet also has the band line-up, the band name and album title plus the year of release, and all song titles above the lyrics in all-capitals. Below each of the lyrics are the names of the people who wrote the lyrics and music, which are in title case. The text “lyrics reproduced by kind permission” is also in title case.

The drawing on the front was made by James Marsh. The original design was done by Bill Smith, the artwork for this re-issue by Rob Crane.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover and spines

Page 2 and 3 of the booklet

X-trafik is a train operator in Sweden. X is the code that was used for the county (län) of Gävleborg in a time (1907–1973) when all counties were coded with a single letter (and in one case, two letters). More info on the county letter codes on the Swedish Wikipedia page.

Where most other logos of train or other public transport operators have rather boring sans serif fonts, I love how X-trafik chose the playful FF Cocon for their logo. Although the official name seems to have the dash, the logo and trains are without the dash. The logo was introduced in late 2008, replacing the previous version in bold italic caps from Futura.

X-trafik use the typeface also at the front and at the sides of the trains saying “Xtåget” (meaning “the X train“), and there is a large X in FF Cocon on the side of the trains and buses. (There is no “Xbuss” on the bus, though.) The red X is used as the favicon on the website and as the logo for the mobile apps.

X-trafik is run by and under the responsibility of Region Gävleborg, the county government. More info in Swedish is available on Wikipedia.

An X-trafik bus captured by Roger Norin Wiik in January 2017

“Xtåget” on the side of X-trafik train no 8256 as it arrives in Ockelbo, Sweden, in June 2017, photographed by Ståle Ualand.

Front cover

Agusa are a Swedish progressive / psychedelic rock band founded in 2013. Två is the band’s second album, released in July 2015. The word två means “two” in Swedish and applies to this being their second album as well as the album having two tracks.

The artwork was done by Peter Wallgren (Discogs). The front cover uses Felix Titling for the band name (at the top of in the circular design) and the album title (at the bottom in the circular design). The Runic (“ᚨᚷᚢᛋᚨ – ᛏᚹᚨᚨ”) is either custom lettering or from an unidentified font.

The song titles, which for the vinyl release are on the back and for the CD release are on the back of the digipak as well as the CD itself, are in Eutemia, with the decorated G and K added from Cloister Initials. The first letters of the two songtitles are hand-painted, which also applies to the band name and album title on the CD.

The credits (on the back of the LP cover and on the inside of the CD digipak) are in Chopin Script, a name used for freebie revivals of Polonaise.

[More info on Discogs]

Digipak outside

Digipak inside

CD

Mirthrandir was a progressive rock band from the USA who self-released one album, in February of 1976. Very talented musicians playing very progressive and melodic rock. But it was 1976 and not a good time for starting prog bands. The artist name comes from misreading the name for character Mithrandir (Elvish for Gandalf) in Lord of the Rings.

In 1992, Syn-Phonic reissued the album on CD with a completely different cover.

In May 2024, the LP was reissued on vinyl with the original cover, in black, clear, and red/black splatter vinyl, in a total of 500 copies. This edition by PQR-Disques plusqueréel also includes a 12-page booklet with the band history and a bonus CD of previously unreleased recordings.

The front cover uses two fonts. The artist name is Neue Aurora VIII. It looks like it’s been made bolder or a little faded, since the corners look rounder than in the original typeface design. The album title is in Libra.

The front cover design was done by Patrick Milbourn. Bonnie Hiller is credited with the logo design but since the back cover has a different logo it is hard to say who did what. The back cover has an illustration that is credited separately. The labels on the LPs use the front cover design.

The band reunited (four original musicians plus two new guitar players) for a series of concerts around 2005 but the band retired again after a couple of years.

Read about Mirthrandir on MusicBrainz or visit the band's Facebook page.

[More info on Discogs]

The band name on the back cover looks like it’s in Industria Gravur a.k.a. Ronsard Crystal, but it appears to be Aurora-Grotesk V with a custom added inline. Track names and credits are set in News Gothic (or Trade Gothic).

Front cover of the album for all formats (LP, CD, digital), with designed band name and album title

Agusa is a Swedish progressive / psychedelic rock band. Högtid is their debut album, released in 2014 on LP (by Kommun2), CD (by Transubstans Records), and in digital form.

The cover was designed by Peter Wallgren. The front contains a design with the artist and album name in a circular logo. This applies to all formats.

The back cover of the LP and CD show photos of the four musicians, surrounded by the text “AGUSA” four times, and the musicians’ first names in Pump Triline. This font is also used on the spine of the CD digipak, but not on the LP spine.

There is a difference between the LP and CD back covers. The LP has handwritten track titles and credits. The CD has the track titles (including a track that is not on the LP) and credits in Giddyup. The CD itself has the track titles in handwritten script.

Listen to the album on the Agusa Bandcamp page. For more information on the band, check their Facebook page.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover and spine of the CD digipak

Front cover of the digital release

Agusa are a Swedish psychedelic rock band whose debut album was released in 2014. Ekstasis is a live album, recorded in Rome in April 2018 and released in December 2018 on vinyl and in digital form.

The cover was designed by Robin Gnista. The design was used for concert posters and T‑shirts, and it is hard to say for which of these the design was used first.

The cover uses Jojo for the artist name. It is also used on the back cover of the vinyl release, with the letters skewed in several directions to follow the design it surrounds (the shape with four corners, two triangles and two half-circles was used on the back cover of their debut album).

On the digital release, “Live in Rome” is added in the script typeface Wolf in the City.

On the vinyl release, the text “Ekstasis Live in Rome” is done in Blippo, and this is used for the spine as well.

Check out the band on Bandcamp and Facebook.

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover of the LP

Back cover of the LP

Full Earth is a new band from Norway, with members of Motorpsycho, playing psychedelic rock. They released their first album Cloud Scluptors in March 2024. The digital version is available on the band’s own Bandcamp page. A clear vinyl double LP has also been released, which is available from Stickman / Echodelick Records.

The artwork was done by Norwegian artist Sunniva Hårstad. The typeface used for the band name and the album title is Luminari.

For more info on the band, check out their Bandcamp, Facebook, and Instagram pages.

[More info on Discogs]

Agusa is a Swedish psychedelic rock band, mostly instrumental, founded in 2013. The music has elements of folk, symphonic rock, progressive rock, and especially when played live the songs often deviate from the studio versions. After five studio albums, the band wrote the music to a movie titled Malmö Noir, directed by Augustin Sjöberg. The soundtrack (most likely with some extra recordings) was released in May 2024 on the album Noir.

The band name and album title use Ganache, with the latter shown in an outline variant. The line below is in Myriad or similar. The back cover also use Ganache for the texts “Side A” and “Side B”. Same goes for the LP labels (not shown here), see images on Discogs. The CD uses it for the plus sign (+) to denote the five CD bonus tracks that did not fit on the vinyl version. The typewriter font used for the track names (and on the vinyl release, also for credits) is John Doe.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover of the compact disc

Back cover of the vinyl record

Ilion is the third studio album by French psychedelic rock band Slift, released January 2024.

The artwork is done by Caza, short for Philippe Cazaumayou, also known as Philippe Caza. The artist logo, album title, and all the text on the back cover of the album use a solid form of Edda. Guthio is credited with the layout.

The CD contains a poster with the tracks and credits as on the back cover of the LP. The other side of the poster contains the lyrics in the same style as the lyrics on the previous album: using brighter grays and heavier weights on the letters to paint the band’s circular logo.

See the MusicBrainz release page for the CD to see detailed images of the CD and poster.

See the Discogs master release page for images of all the releases.

Nepenthe were a progressive rock band from the USA, who released this album in 1997, and an EP in 2002. Before, they were named Ars Nova and released an album under that name.

This artwork has the band name in tracked-out caps from an alphabet originally drawn by Peter Schnorr sometime before 1905. The font in use is one of the digitizations named Ambrosia. It appears to be George Williams’ version, which, like Schnorr Gestreckt (and unlike Richard W. Mueller’s Ambrosia), has the E that extends below the baseline, but also the H with the curvy middle lines. Maginot is similar, too, but has a curved base in P, among other small differences.

The album title is in Adine Kirnberg Script, which is based on Berthold’s Romana from 1897.

For more info, see the band page at MusicBrainz or Discogs. Also check out the band page for Ars Nova at MusicBrainz or Discogs.

Monkey3 is a band from Switzerland playing instrumental psychedelic rock. Their debut album is from 2004, and Sphere is their sixth studio album, released in 2019.

You can listen to the album on Bandcamp. Check out the band's official website or Facebook page.

The artwork was created by Sebastian Jerke.

Alan Reed was the singer in Abel Ganz (1983–1984), Pallas (1984–2010 and 2023). He’s also active as a solo artist. In November 2011 he released his first solo EP, Dancing with Ghosts.

The artist name is in Herculanum (with its two forms for A) and the EP title in Harrington. Herculanum is used for the artist name on several other releases and tour and event posters.

See the Bandcamp album page for more info and to buy the album.

[More info on Discogs]

front cover

Pauw was a Dutch psychedelic rock band who were active between 2013 and 2017. They released an EP (vinyl only), a few singles, and one full-length album, Macrocosm Microcosm, in October 2015.

The artwork for several of their releases was done by Nerisa Boezen. The font used is Dream Orphans, all caps. The back cover has the track listing, also in all caps.

The album has a gatefold cover and contains a poster, slightly smaller than a gatefold cover (two panes, folded once), of the album artwork without lettering. The inside of the gatefold has a drawing of the four musicians and the credits.

For more info, see the band page on MusicBrainz or Discogs. For details on this album, see the release group page on MusicBrainz and the master release page on Discogs.

Back cover

Eorþe (Earth) is Skraeckoedlan’s third studio album, released in 2019. Skraeckoedlan (meaning horror lizard, although the Swedish spelling would be skräcködlan) play heavy stoner rock.

The front cover used Dubba Dubba NF for the band logo with a shade made from the same font size but with slightly less letter spacing. The artwork and design are by Johan Leion who also handled previous covers for the band.

For more information, see the master release on Discogs, the release group on MusicBrainz, or the Bandcamp album page.

Aldi Dallo Spazio are an Italian prog rock band who self-released their debut album Quasar in 2017, with artwork and design by Federico Espositi / DAR Visual Design. In 2019, the album was re-released by Jolly Rogers Records with slightly changed artwork. Both versions use the typeface Above a lot.

[More info on Discogs]

Compact disc, 2017 release

Interior of the 2017 digipack

Exterior of the 2017 digipack, with track list and spine set in a yet unidentified typeface

Back cover and spines of the 2019 compact disc

Booklet of the 2019 compact disc

front

Gula is a doom metal / post rock / prog rock band from the Netherlands. Birds of the Apocalypse from December 2023 is their second album.

The album cover was done by Annette Goedegebuure, and artwork is credited to Ilja Fase. Although not specifically mentioned, I think this means Ilja Fase is the one who chose the font, which is Courier. This is used on the front and back cover of the CD’s digipak, on the CD itself, and all the text in the booklet. The spine of the digipak also uses the same font, although it looks like it has been stretched horizontally to cover more space.

More info on MusicBrainz

Digipak, outside

Front cover of the digipak

Gula are a Dutch band playing a mix of doom metal and post-rock with progressive layer.

Their eponymous debut album from 2018 (released on their Bandcamp page and on CD) uses Algerian throughout: the band name on the front, track listing on the back, text on the CD (band name and copyright) and all the texts in the booklet. The only exception is the spine, which is in a font that is too small to identify with just four letters.

The artwork was done by the band's guitarist Jan Bleijenberg and bass player/vocalist Ilja Fase.

More info on the release group on MusicBrainz, master release on Discogs.

Outside of the digipak showing the back, spine, and front

CD

This is the alternate cover for Earth and Fire's eponymous debut album. This edition has a Roger Dean cover, which was used for the first British release on the Nepentha label in 1971 (as pictured). Many later releases all over the world have been using this cover.

This design uses Old English for the band name / album title.

See also the matchbox cover that was used for the original September 1970 release in the Netherlands, and several reissues after that.

External links: MusicBrainz release group, Discogs master release, Earth and Fire website.

Song of the Marching Children was released in October 1971 and is the second album of this Dutch psych/prog/pop band. This is arguably their masterpiece, with a consistent style of symphonic progressive rock, while from the next album on the band would include pop music and other styles more and more.

The front cover has the band name in a laurel wreath (a reference to the lyrics of the title track). Both the band name and album title are in Fette Gotisch.

Some issues of the album have the colours inversed (black on yellow/gold), and for most CD releases, the band logo has been enlarged.

External links: MusicBrainz release group, Discogs master release, Earth and Fire website, Earth and Fire on Wikipedia.

Inside of the gatefold sleeve, painting by Erik van der Weijden.