Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy Album Cover, 1976

This work was reproduced on the front cover of Technical Ecstasy , Black Sabbath's seventh studio album.

Image courtesy of Black Sabbath. Photography by Hipgnosis.

“Here is a design taken unequivocally from the title. More often than not I glean ideas, and hence images, from a compote of music, lyric and descriptions from the musicians, but not in this case. I don’t think I heard the music, I’m sorry to confess, but the title was so evocative and promising that it wasn’t necessary. One immediately experiences a contrast  in the title: ecstasy, being a very human thing and technical being not so human.“The question seemed to be, how would one experience ecstasy in technical terms? Or rather, to turn this around, how would technical (non-human) beings experience human-like ecstasy?” - Storm Thorgerson