Psychdelic sounds meets dancing watercolors in the music video for Chui Wan's "Sheep's Shadow"

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“Sheep’s Shadow,” a music video by Chui Wan, the Beijing-based experimental psych-rock group, features watercolor animation by Tu Qian, a talented Chinese artist who we’ve featured in the past. The article, “Watercolor in Motion,” was what first brought Tu’s work to the group’s attention. “They saw the story and really liked my style,” says Tu. “One of the band members, Yu Long, got in touch with me. A lot of my friends are fans of Chui Wan, so I was really excited to hear from them.” The track comes from their latest album, The Landscape the Tropics Never Had, which was released last year.

《羊的影子》是来自北京的四人实验迷幻摇滚乐队吹万的最新专辑《热带从未有过的风景》之中的一首单曲，MV 由艺术家涂迁以水彩定格动画的方式逐格绘制。而我们两年前对涂迁的一篇专访文章《Watercolor in Motion》间接促成了这次合作。涂迁告诉我们，“乐队的玉龙通过报道联系到了我。我的几个朋友都很迷吹万，所以收到邮件的时候还是很得意的。”

The Landscape the Tropics Never Had contains six long tracks, each lasting around seven minutes. Chui Wan’s poetic, psychedelic sound, neither rushed nor slow, leaves plenty of room for the listener’s imagination, while Tu’s watercolor GIFs can quickly set a mood. The artists’ shared creative outlook made this collaboration go especially smoothly. With its ethereal vocals and soft, overlapping colors, the video draws the viewer into a rain-streaked dreamland.

《热带从未有过的风景》里有六首时长超常的歌，平均长度在7分钟左右，他们的歌不紧不慢，带有诗意的迷幻音调为听众保留出足够的想象空间。而涂迁擅长创作的水彩 GIF 动画，也同样是以意境取胜。带给观众相同的从容感。这样创作上的共通之处，似乎也让这次合作来的更加顺畅。MV 中错落重叠的柔和色彩，加上歌曲中飘渺的人声，将观众轻轻一推，推进吹万的雨夜梦境中。

As you’d imagine for such unconventional artists, the collaboration was very free. Chui Wan hardly gave Tu any limitations—they just sent some images from a tour as inspiration. “Balloons become birds, clouds turn into girls, grays gradually shade into bright red-orange, and then into a deep-sea blue,” he says, describing the video. “The tabletop horizon gives way to vertical elevator doors, and the sea’s calm surface is the boundary between the horizontal and the vertical. I want to be clear in the mood and narrative rhythm, but not too clear. I think that pretty much sums it up.”

关于 MV 的绘制过程，如我们想象的一样，这样空灵的两位（组）艺术家的合作，应当无比自由的。吹万对涂迁的视觉呈现基本没什么限制，只发来一些乐队巡演时的画面作启发。涂迁告诉我们：“比如变成鸟的气球到幻化成女孩的羊，渐近的灰转向赤热的橘再到深海一般的蓝，横向的桌面水平线到纵向的电梯大门，平静的海面是横竖空间的间隙。不论是叙事节奏还是歌词意境，我很想把事情说清楚，又怕说的太清楚，就这样随随意意交待一下我觉得就差不多了。”