On 26th February 2016 Jeff Wootton (born 12 May 1987) released his first solo album entitled “The Way the Light“. The album, is released on the British Sympathy for Vinyl (not to be confused with the American Sympathy for the Record Industry) label. Well, I had not heard of Jeff Wootton but a quick gander at his CV reveals that he is a demon guitarist. When Noel Gallagher left Oasis, Liam Gallagher recruited him to his new group Beady Eye. Wootton has played along side Damon Albarn in Gorillaz and on Albarn‘s solo project as well as with Brian Eno, Noel Gallagher (appearing in Gallagher‘s 2015 video “Ballad of the Mighty“). He also travelled to Mali together with several other musicians, including Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Nick Zinner with a group called Africa Express to record a version of Terry Riley‘s “In C“–a work I first heard in the mid sixties.

“The Way the Light“album is released in a limited edition of 500 copies (mine is No. 403) which include a limited edition book with ten new Damien Hirst spin paintings–one for each album track. The gatefold album cover also has one of the Damien Hirst paintings on the rear cover.

The booklet contains a number of classy photos of Wootton playing his guitar (a Stratocaster) and another is used on the centre spread of the gatefold cover.

And here are the ten Damien Hirst spin paintings mounted together.

I have not yet been able to find any details of how Damien Hirst came to cooperate with Jeff Wootton on this album project. This is Damien Hirst’s 28th record cover.