Dear Reader - Down Under, Mining

"Down Under, Mining", from new album 'Rivonia', out 8 April 2013.

The band will be on tour in May - all dates below! Preorder the album here: http://dearreader.frocksteady.com/ on Amazon:http://glnk.it/1zz or on iTunes: http://glnk.it/200

The new video for Dear Reader's "Down Under, Mining", created by Berlin-based artist Barbara Steinitz, is an impressive and beautiful feat of visual storytelling. Composed entirely of paper cut-outs, painstakingly handcrafted and puppeteered live by Steinitz, it recreates the old-world scenes evoked in the song with a moving simplicity.

"After seeing Barbara perform one of her paper theatre pieces for some children at a school in Neukölln, I was inspired to use the same kind of technique to make a music video. Since each song on my new record is an exercise in storytelling, it seemed perfect to use the same approach on the visual side as well. She showed me some other work that she had done using shadows and silhouettes, and it seemed like a perfect medium to depict the world of miners, working in the darkness deep below the earth's surface. I was also drawn by the idea of something made completely by hand; an old-fashioned technique seemed a perfect match for music about older days." - Cherilyn MacNeil

"The haunting sound of 'Down Under, Mining' immediately provoked images in my mind's eye that I felt could best be realised using clear, graphic shadow theatre. I had already been working with this technique for years, mainly for book illustrations. 
As a contrast to the shadows that represent the hard lives of miners in Johannesburg in the 1900's, I used a white paper-cut technique, which depicts the present, where a woman confronts the ghosts of the past. On the technical side of things I was joined by video artist Philine Sollmann, who did the filming and editing of the piece, and sometimes joined me in playing the puppets." - Barbara Steinitz

Director, silhouettes, lighting and puppetry: Barbara Steinitz
http://www.barbara-steinitz.de

Camera and editing: Philine Sollmann
http://www.philinesollmann.com


DEAR READER - Summer Tour 2013

08.05 Hannover DE - Musikzentrum
09.05 Magdeburg DE - Moritzhof
10.05 Dresden DE - Scheune
11.05 Linz AT - Posthof
13.05 Stuttgart, Schocken
14.05 Zürich CH - Rote Fabrik
15.05 Basel CH - Kuppel
16.05 München DE - Atomic Café
21.05 Freiburg DE - Schmitz Katze
22.05 Belfort FR - La Poudriere
23.05 Paris FR - Le Nouveau Casino
24.05 Köln DE - Gebäude 9
26.05 Münster DE - Gleis 22
27.05 Hamburg, Uebel & Gefährlich
28.05 Berlin, Lido
13.07. Rüsselsheim, Phono Pop Festival
02.08 Jena, Kulturarena
22.11 Luxemburg - Sonic Visions Festival