The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony

A hardback book and double vinyl album released in 1979, conceived, written and illustrated by Patrick Woodroffe, with music written and performed by Dave Greenslade. The title means, approximately, 'the first five books (pentateuch) of the creation (cosmogony)'.

The story and artwork within 'Pentateuch' concerns the discovery of an abandoned spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter, and the project to decipher the ideograms in the pentateuch 'document' discovered within. Most of the book is a retelling of the document, in much the same way as a modern translator might retell the contents of a Babylonian tablet or Egyptian papyrus scroll. Particularly remarkable is the combinatorial ideographic script created by Woodroffe and used throughout the artwork.

Greenslade contributes the 74 minutes of music as his second solo project, enlisting Phil Collins amongst others to help.

A CD reissue was released in 1994, achieving the awkward transfer of Woodroffe's 12" x 12" book into a 5" square booklet with some success, though the impact of some of the artwork is lost, and the end of one track is faded out early.

The story was retold without music in 1987's The Second Earth. This featured additional artwork and was rewritten with extended prose replacing the original verse form. The additional artwork is not always as closely linked to the story as the original selection. A Japanese edition was also published.

External links

* [http://www.patrickwoodroffe-world.com/books.htm Patrick Woodroffe web site] .
* [http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=78341 'Prog Archives']
* [http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3ao.html#pentateuch Examples of the ideographic script]