Portland, Maine-based Atlantis Found Publishing Inc. announces the launch of “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) Online Album Art Competition. The contest seeks digital visual artwork submissions to illustrate the song lyrics of Conceptual Artist James Thomas Fielding, who has produced over 500 musical compositions and 5,000 song titles in a 35-year career.  

   The contest is limited to the U.S., Canada and the U.K. 

   The juried art competition, which seeks to establish a new multimedia art form based on rock “Concept Albums,” offers $6,000 in cash prizes to be awarded to three finalists in two categories: Best Songbook Jacket and Best Album Jacket.  

   The public will select the winners by voting online at the contest website, http://www.wordswithoutvoices.com . 

   The “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” series combines Art, Music, Language and Internet Technology, and will be aimed toward the youth market, especially college art instructors and students who study Advertising, Visual Arts, English, Graphic Design, Multimedia, Music and Web Design. 

    “This competition places more emphasis on imagination than knowledge, and students in many fields of study will benefit from both result-oriented and experiential learning,” said Fielding, a 51-year-old Maine resident. 

   Fielding said “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” is not so much an attempt to resurrect the concept album as to preserve and explore its possibilities as a viable art form. 

   “The release of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ in 1967 should have signaled the beginning of a new era in album composition,” Fielding said. “Instead, it was a rare high point in a field more interested in making money than exploring art. In the 40 years since ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ release, modern rock has been limited enormously by formula formats and commercialism.” 

   According to Fielding, Green Day’s “American Idiot” is a good, recent example of the “concept album,” even though it was not marketed as such.  

   Fielding admits that Atlantis Found’s agenda—to elevate an art form which reached its creative zenith by the mid-1970’s, is ambitious.  

    “Staples of yesteryear such as concept albums and rock operas, like The Who’s ‘Tommy, Hair’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ are rare today,” Fielding said. 

   Still, he believes the potential appeal of concept albums ranges from “15-year-old heavy-metal headbangers to college professors with PhDs in literature.”  

   Fielding is seeking artwork to illustrate the titles of 25 songbook jackets and 125 album covers in genres ranging from country, gospel and progressive rock to death metal. 

   The initial “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” contest features no music, just the combination of visual artwork and songbook, album and song titles.  

   While the contest is open to “anyone who is creative,” state contest restrictions apply. Entry fees are $10 for one entry in one category, $15 to enter both. All submissions will be displayed at WordsWithoutVoices.com.  

   Final deadline for the competition is Aug. 31. For more information, contact Jim Fielding at jtf@wordswithoutvoices.com or by mail at Atlantis Found Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 9546, Portland, Maine 04112.