The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd, 1973. Sleeve design by Hipgnosis. The original gatefold, framed with both sides of the record. Main bedroom, above the bed.

Above the bed, in a deep frame: the original gatefold of The Dark Side of the Moon, with both sides of the record mounted either side of it.

The sleeve

The album came out in 1973 and changed what an album could be — a continuous sequence rather than a collection of songs, running from the ticking clocks of “Time” to the last words of “Eclipse”. The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, the studio behind most of the era’s best sleeves, and it reduced all of that to a triangle, a beam and a spectrum. White light in one side, a rainbow out the other.

We framed the gatefold rather than the front cover because the gatefold is the long horizontal one, and it fits the wall above a bed in a way the square cover never would. Mounting both sides of the record is a liberty, since the album was a single disc. We did it for the symmetry, and because two black circles balance the rectangle between them.

Why it hangs here

The pair of wall lamps either side sit at 2200K, so at night the print is lit at roughly candle temperature and the prism goes warm. In daylight it reads as architecture: flat black, hard geometry. The two versions of it are different enough that guests who stay a while notice the second one.

It hangs above the bed because the bedroom is the room for thinking in, and this is the least demanding picture in the building. It does not ask for attention. It is the counterpart to the Sgt. Pepper’s gatefold in the living area, which is loud, colourful and sociable — the two were chosen against each other, one for conversation and one for quiet.

The shelf carries a book on album cover art if you want the rest of the story, and for stays of a month or more we will put a turntable in the apartment. The record itself is in the collection.