Ben Jones, the mastermind behind prog rock outfit Orion, has accused artist Hugh Syme of apparently cashing in twice on a piece of art. Going by Orion‘s post on social media, a piece of art he purchased the rights to from Syme for use in his August 2024 Orion album “The Lightbringers,” has since also shown up in the booklet for the deluxe edition of Dream Theater‘s newly released album, “Parasomnia“.
Jones has shared the following of that on Facebook on February 07th
“Is this for real?! A piece of artwork in the new Dream Theater deluxe edition is the EXACT same piece of artwork that was in The Lightbringers booklet for the song The Ghosts Among Us.
I’m sure they won’t read this, but any thoughts from Mike Portnoy or John Petrucci? Hugh Syme did the artwork for my album and theirs, so I think I can see where this is going…”
Syme doesn’t appear to have publicly responded to the allegations. However, in a comment made by Jones on Orion‘s Facebook yesterday, February 09th, it would appear that he and Dream Theater‘s camp have reached an agreement on the matter. That comment read:
“I’m not sure why plagiarism is ever being mentioned, because I’ve certainly never said anything about that. In fact, I’ve written hundreds of responses to make people aware that DT are also victims of Hugh’s negligence.
Now, what did I post publicly? Most people won’t understand, largely because they’ve never been down this road. Try to imagine a situation where you’ve spent thousands of dollars on artwork that was meant to be unique and tailored for your album. You’ve also spent thousands on creating the album itself, spent months working on it, trying to make it as good as can be.
Now imagine that a fan sends you a photo, clearly showing that the exact piece of artwork (which was meant to be exclusive to you) has appeared in the biggest band in the genre’s new album art book. I can tell you, it’s utterly gut wrenching.
The other part of my reason for posting this is that I wanted DT to be aware. I’m no big name musician, and I don’t have the means to easily contact the likes of DT, hence why I took the time to make 3-4 initial posts on a couple of different pages about it. I certainly didn’t think it would turn into this.
Well, the outcome is that Dream Theater‘s manager contacted me on Saturday night, and we had a very amicable exchange. I also took the chance to clarify with Frank that I don’t think they have committed any wrongdoing. Despite the fact that they really owe me nothing, Frank made me a very kind offer, which I will take him up on at some point.
In the end, people will decide what they want to feel about this, regardless of the facts.”
