One of the interesting items that has recently popped up on the Internet is an item from EMI entitled the “Dark Side of the Moon SACD Audio/Video Electronic Press Kit (EPK)”. The EPK is a short video that features the members of Pink Floyd talking about the origin of the Dark Side of the Moon album. It includes their remembrances of how the various songs came to be, how they were recorded and how the various talking voices on the album were recorded.
The EPK also features comments by Dark Side of the Moon Art Designer Storm Thorgerson. According to Thorgerson, the idea behind the new blue cover with the stained glass design that appears on the 30th Anniversary Edition SACD originated with the decision to include a new 5.1 surround mix on the album. Throgerson says this expanded the scope and prism through which the album’s music can be viewed, hence the stained glass window metaphor.
Comments from Pink Floyd
In addition to the band’s remembrances of how Dark Side of the Moon came to be, they also talk about the new 30th Anniversary Edition on SACD. According to members of the band, the new edition sounds better than earlier versions since it’s from a first generation source vs. the “third generation tapes” used in past editions.
Members of Pink Floyd also say they enjoy the new 5.1 SACD surround mix because it reminds them of the 4 Channel Quadraphonic presentations of Dark Side of the Moon they did on tour in years past. They call it “brilliant” and “a revelation”. The band members also say that another advantage of the new disc is that some instrumental parts that were hard to hear or obscured in past editions of the album are now easily heard and audible on the 30th Anniversary Edition SACD.
Viewing the Electronic Press Kit
You have a couple of choices if you’d like to watch the new Pink Floyd Electronic Press Kit (EPK). The Pink Floyd fan web site called “Brain Damage” at http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/dsotm/epk.html provides links which provide your choice of viewing the EPK in Windows Media or Real Media format. They also offer you the choice of watching it over either a broadband or a modem speed connection.
According to Matt Johns at Brain Damage, posting the EPK on the web was the idea of EMI’s New Media Manager Eric Winbolt. Winbolt approached Brain Damage and suggested that they host the clips for convenient web viewing by Pink Floyd and Dark Side of the Moon fans with the permission of EMI.
The other choice is to download the Press Kit from the alt.binaries.cd.other newsgroup on the Internet. On the newsgroup, the press kit is made up of several very large “RAR” compressed files. To uncompress the file, you’ll need a program like WinRAR. The resulting file is a 44.4 Mb Windows *.ASF Media Format file. It can be played on the Media Player that comes with Windows, or any media player that can handle an ASF file.
If you’re a fan of Pink Floyd and Dark Side of the Moon, I’d suggest looking up this file. It’s an interesting little journey into how the album was made and what the band thinks of the sonics on the new 30th Anniversary Edition SACD.