Wilburn Burchette – Opens the Seven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness album art
When future and past collide: Amelia (1966), the typographic embodiment of the Space Age and sixties futurism, paired with Crayonette (1889), the undulating fantasy cursive from late romanticism, connected by little more than their otherness, i.e. pronounced stroke contrast (vertical in the former, horizontal in the latter), with thicker parts in unusual places.
The Seven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness is the second album by Master Wilburn Burchette. Between 1971 and 1977, the California mail-order mystic released seven albums with experimental guitar music “before abruptly burning and discarding everything related to his musical explorations.” [Numero Group] Originally released in 1972 on Ebos Record, the instrumental album included a “full color instruction book” with seven pieces of original artwork by Wisconsin artist Caren Caraway. The Seven Gates was reissued in 2015 by Fifth Dimension, and is available in digital form from Numero Group.
Detail from the back cover. “This is real stereo! Be prepared to hear things you may have never heard before!” The typeface is Spartan, Linotype’s copy of Futura, here easily distinguishable by its alternate double-storey a.
The poems accompanying Caraway’s images are set in a bold italic Bodoni (probably Mergenthaler Linotype’s version).
The biographies are set in Excelsior or similar.
![“A Transcendental Ballet for the Mind of God”
Now YOU can experience transcendental consciousness without spending 10 years in a Tibetan monastery. Achieve transcendental consciousness and experience the heightened awareness of psychic freedom. Travel beyond the sensory plane and let your spirit soar as Wilburn Burchette’s transcendental music guides you through the seven gates of the seven levels of consciousness. This is an experience you can recreate time after time in the privacy of your own room — a experience that was once the exclusive property of the accomplished mystic. Now, you too may share the indescribable state of mind that has been the goal of seekers from all lands since the beginning of time. […]
The liner notes are by Brad Steiger.](https://fiu-original.b-cdn.net/fontsinuse.com/use-images/94/94747/94747.jpeg?filename=Wilburn Burchette back.jpg)
“A Transcendental Ballet for the Mind of God”
Now YOU can experience transcendental consciousness without spending 10 years in a Tibetan monastery. Achieve transcendental consciousness and experience the heightened awareness of psychic freedom. Travel beyond the sensory plane and let your spirit soar as Wilburn Burchette’s transcendental music guides you through the seven gates of the seven levels of consciousness. This is an experience you can recreate time after time in the privacy of your own room — a experience that was once the exclusive property of the accomplished mystic. Now, you too may share the indescribable state of mind that has been the goal of seekers from all lands since the beginning of time. […]
The liner notes are by Brad Steiger.
