Jonny Trunk

Audio Erotica is a perfectly pitched visual anthem to home audio entertainment. Using sales brochures from the 1950-1980s, a symphony of graphic nostalgia tracks the technological progress of our listening pleasure. Remember roller-skating wearing your first Walkman? Or relaxing to easy-listening in your pure white Philips lounge? Or playing chess on your JVC tabletop radio? All these scenarios can be found in the geeky and rarefied world of the vintage hi-fi brochure, where graphic design and acoustic apparatus make magical music together. From austere post-war Britain to poppy pre-millennium Japan, Audio Erotica presents a nostalgic nirvana of the strangest and most significant period hi-fi brochures. Alphabetically listed, from Aiwa to Zenith, with Braun, JVC Nivico, Nakamichi, Sony and everything in between, this book will resonate with any music fan. Setting the tempo are the pipe-smoking, high-end separates (amplifiers, speakers, turntables) of the 1950s, followed by the swinging Dansette record players of the 1960s, the prog-brushed-metal music centres of the 1970s, and the sleek capitalist cabinet stack systems of the 1980s – not forgetting the aerobic stereo sound portability facilitated by the boom-box, and that final high-fidelity, hardware hurrah: the compact disc. All accompanied by questionable fashion decisions and acres of shag-pile carpet. The evocative brochures in Audio Erotica track the technological development of audio equipment before the digital download, while simultaneously revealing the way hi-fi was marketed to the listening public. With knobs on.

The first edition of "The Music Library," published in 2005 and now out of print, brought together the designs of more than 325 record sleeves and relevant information about these rare and elusive albums. Quickly becoming known as the music library "bible," "The Music Library" represented a valuable reference and also sparked a resurgence of interest in the subject over the last ten years, with many new library labels and recordings coming to light. Library music-also known as source or mood music-was made for use in film, TV, advertising and radio. It was given to TV channels and producers who needed cheap, signature music for animations, advertisements and television programs. Never commercially available for sale to the public, this music was pressed from the 1950s onwards in limited quantities, and then sent directly for use in production houses and radio stations. These LPs were intended for purpose and function, not for pop charts, and as a result they look and sound like nothing else. Without the usual music industry constraints, the record sleeve designers had almost complete freedom of expression, with unprecedented results. This new and expanded edition of "The Music Library" contains twice the content of the original book, featuring 625 rare sleeves from 230 music library companies of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The amazing cover designs of over 100 newly discovered library albums are beautifully reproduced (alongside all the sleeves contained in the first book) and accompanied by exhaustive, updated captions.