On the 12th of April 1961, Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit for the first and - so they tell us - the last time. Upon returning to Earth, Yuri became a global hero, travelling the world to tell of his adventure.
Secretly, he was plagued by strange hallucinations and a persistent glow around his vision; a cornucopia of colour in a constant corona. In 1964 - following a silent coup by Leonid Brezhnev - Yuri was banned from embarking on further manned missions into space. At first fearing madness, the cosmonaut came to see these apparitions as a signal, an invitation, a welcoming beacon from a distant lighthouse blinking across the cosmic void.
On the 27th of March 1968, aided by trusted friends within the space program, Yuri Gagarin swapped places with another cosmonaut on a secret test flight and was once more blasted into outer space. Knocked unconscious by the extreme velocity of his experimental craft, Yuri awoke a mere 15 minutes later in view not of the rapidly shrinking Earth, but an entirely alien vista; he was elsewhere...
About Tony Neptune:
An artist from Leeds, Tony, who is also known as Sam Jefferies, specializes in painting and the production of electronic music. Primarily working in oil paint he works from his studio on Wharf Street where he engages in his telling of the tales and adventures of Yuri Gagarin, the cosmonaut who was taken from us in the spring of 1961. Through a mixture of image, sound and text Tony’s main ambition is to tell a complete story for the senses. Each piece of music on this EP has been created to accompany the painting on the cover as part of a wider soundtrack to complement the narrative. An insert detailing the story supplements the narrative of each issue.
