‘Moments From Eden’ was a very attractive, limited edition live EP featuring the tracks that Ultravox added to their set for the second ‘comeback’ tour in 2010, ‘Return To Eden 2’. Rather than release multiple versions, the nicely designed package included a red vinyl 10″ single along with a CD version housed inside the gatefold spread of the cover, with further themed artwork featured in an additional booklet.
If you ordered the record online from Townsend Records, the release also came with a limited edition A4 sized print, as displayed in the photo below, a variation on the design from the back cover of the record.
The comeback tour had already been documented on the CD/DVD release of ‘Return to Eden’, so this release was a welcome addition to capture the three tracks added to the setlist for the following year’s ‘Return to Eden 2’ tour, these being ‘New Europeans’, ‘White China’ and ‘Love’s Great Adventure’.
The recordings were made on the German leg of the tour (Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg, Monday 23rd April 2010 and Admiralspalast, Berlin, Tuesday 24th April 2010) and this helps explain the presence of the fourth track, the German language ‘Herr X’, with Warren Cann in fine form on an excellent version of the track.
A nice release all in all and very much in keeping with what can be seen as an Ultravox tradition of an interim live release – after all, Ultravox! (Mark I) had the live ‘Retro’ EP in 1978, while Ultravox (Mark II) had the ‘Monument The Soundtrack’ live mini album back in 1983.
Ultravox would return to the studio for the recording of ‘Brilliant’ after this release and embark on what has been their last tour to date in support of it.
Last but by no means least, the artwork by Rian Hughes is stunning and elevates the whole package into something quite special and certainly far more than ‘just a live EP’ it might otherwise have been had any old packaging been seen as ‘good enough’. Nice details such as how the CD is attached into the package work well and this really is a release worthy of so many other high-class designs that the band have benefited from over many years.
a wonderful looking and sounding item. in my humble opinion the graphics really represented a modern day Ultravox while still having references to the past. it’s a pity that Rian Hughes wasn’t used for more releases especially the shockingly awful and scant/non-existent sleeve work of Extended, there was a release that would have been a graphic designers wet dream.