Architect Alessandro Mendini’s Famous LP Gets a Reissue

Alessandro Mendini, a Milanese architect and designer, passed away at the age of 88 on February 18, a month shy of the reissue of his nine-track LP Architettura Sussurrante di Alessandro Mendini. Originally released in 1983, the record brought together an eclectic mix of collaborators, all handpicked by Mendini, including an Italian pop band and a theater collective.

The posthumously repackaged album, artfully executed by New York designer Lapo Belmestieri, is as much a tribute to Mendini as it is an ode to the Postmodern era that he helped shape. Belmestieri has restored Mendini’s original abstract cover design, which was revolutionary at a time when figurative images predominated. Mendini’s graphic hints at the music’s melodic contours and cacophonous layering of sound: Blue and black shapes dance, overlap, lock, and create space against a pink background. Taken as a whole, the visually and aurally peculiar album hints at a spatial concept of sound.

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