Inspired by the cover art from Beijing-based Re-TROS’ critically-acclaimed album 'Before The Applause'. It may look like some kind of automated thing but many hours of headaches and beard-twizzling went into animating every single element 100% manually.

The pocket-sized story behind this is that I heard it clattering out of the radio one evening while making dinner and immediately abandoned my shallots to look up who created it. A Chinese outfit, no less. And they were due to play in my home town in only a few weeks as part of an extended European tour while supporting Depeche Mode. Well, this was clearly meant to be.

I headed down to the venue with a small camera and one lens, and asked the band if they would mind me filming. They agreed and I fired up the camera to find that I’d gone and left the SD card at home. I returned home after the gig and set about seeing what I could do with the album artwork, which was also the basis of all their single releases. The obvious challenge was whether I could rinse an entire video out of it.