Documentary music often occupies a restrained visual landscape within the production music industry, with understated photography and familiar imagery appearing throughout the genre. The challenge was to create a visual language that reflected the music’s quiet confidence without relying on those established conventions. That approach became a defining part of NOVA’s identity, allowing each release to develop its own character while remaining rooted in the music.

Although the album was eventually titled Factual Piano, the visual identity began with the track Radiate. That composition became the driver for the artwork. Listening to the music, I kept returning to its repeating phrases and the way they gradually develop while retaining the same underlying structure.

Expanding spatial curves became the foundation of the system, with each successive curve growing from the last within a consistent geometric framework. The form develops outwards through repetition, translating the track’s gradual progression into a single sculptural composition.

The system is built on harmonic relationships derived from standing wave behaviour, giving the geometry a consistent set of rules for proportion, spacing and curvature. Introducing additional frequencies increases the complexity of the form without losing the structure established at the beginning.

The clay render reveals the underlying construction before materials and lighting are introduced, making it easier to see the harmonic framework that defines the geometry. The published album artwork builds directly on that structure, using materials and lighting to create depth while retaining the relationships established by the system.