Our latest project with Peter Saville has just been announced.
CP1919 is a new digital, visual, and audio project created by multidisciplinary artist Peter Saville, musician Stephen Morris, and the Joy Division Archive. Set to be released by Pace Verso on October 9 at 12 PM EDT, CP1919 elaborates upon the iconic cover art of Joy Division’s seminal album Unknown Pleasures, released by Factory Records 44 years ago.
CP1919 comprises two distinct digital artworks: CP1919: Sweeping Sun White 2023, an open edition featuring a monochromatic white color palette, and CP1919: Sweeping Sun Black 2023, a one-of-one edition with a monochromatic black color palette.
The CP1919 project takes its title from the name of the original pulse of the collapsed star that Peter Saville rendered visually on the cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album. Each of the CP1919 artworks features animated, three-dimensional imagery by Saville as well as a newly recorded soundtrack with previously unheard vocal samples from Joy Division.
Both the white and black versions of the artwork will feature a unique soundtrack that founding Joy Division member Stephen Morris has built around the radio signature of pulsar CP1919 along with processed archival sound. The animated, three-dimensional visuals in CP1919 are inspired by the original Unknown Pleasures cover and 3D modelled by Bill Holding & Ben Cox at Morph.
Peter Saville, Stephen Morris, and Brian Cox on CP1919
This new film features a recent conversation between Peter Saville, artist and co-founder of Factory Records; musician and former Joy Division member Stephen Morris; and physicist and Joy Division fan Brian Cox, who discuss CP1919, a new digital audiovisual project by Saville, Morris, and the Joy Division Archive. Commemorating the seminal Unknown Pleasures album and featuring rare Joy Division archival sound, the CP1919 NFT project takes its title from the name of the original pulse of the collapsed star rendered visually on the cover of Unknown Pleasures. The project will be released by Pace Verso this fall.