Mango Mage Records partnered with dBXY and Jed Henry to bring Edo Superstar to vinyl, and to build a package worth the art printed on it.
The object
The design takes its cue from a shikishi, the thick gold-edged board used in Japan to present calligraphy, ink paintings and poetry. It's the surface a piece of art gets mounted on when someone means to keep it.
The sleeve is 1000g/m² cardboard. A standard vinyl jacket runs around 300g/m², so this is roughly three times that, and about as heavy as printed board gets. It has real weight in the hand, closer to a slipcased book than a record sleeve. Cloth is wrapped around it. Jed Henry's cover art is struck in gold hot foil and embossed, so the light shifts across it as you turn the jacket.
The music
dBXY composed and produced the score, running traditional Japanese hōgaku through modern electronics: Edo-period instruments, sampled beats, icy synths. It sits perfectly against the game's visual style.
Edo Superstar is a game by Jed Henry, a world-renowned woodblock print artist who funded it through Kickstarter. His work is on Instagram and at Ukiyo-e Heroes.
Every copy is hand-numbered and side B is etched with an Asian-inspired cloud motif that carries the artwork off the jacket and onto the record itself.
Soundtrack composed and produced by dBXY
Game + Art created by Jed Henry
Additional vinyl art + layout by Abigail Scott (aka Silvermilk)
Audio mastering by Ohad Nissim