Patrick Stefan music video

A music and art collaboration with Patrick Stefan for his single ‘Drinking alone In the moonlight’ . This animation was made with hand printed artwork rather than digital drawings, hence the very simplistic style.

‘Drinking alone In the moonlight’ takes its name from a 8th Century Chinese poem by Li Bai, known for his poems about wandering, nature, mindfulness & solitude. The poem longs for friends, but settles with the company of his own shadow and the moon - “When I sing the moon dances, when I dance my shadow dances too” This beautiful video was made by Becky Hatchett, whose work I saw online and instantly loved. In Becky's words; 'It’s all monoprint with block ink and paper cut artwork which is then digitised, animated and layered with simple silhouettes … so although it looks very simple it is quite a process compared to producing purely digital artwork'. I love that she used her hands and physical materials to make the video, and how it takes you on a journey by looking into the cup - it reminds me of that wide-eyed feeling of seeing something magical on television when you are really young and your brain is putting together the story through symbols in real time. A fellow wanderer of the world and of the self, the simplicity of the words resonated with the solo experiences that shaped my upcoming album Wayfare. I wrote the song first on a Finnish Kantele - a child’s harp, then brought it to life with a guitar accompaniment & strings that reminded me of Nick Drake in a classic 50’s movie. To a Taoist, Li Bai's drunkenness would not be seen as a vice: I connect to the idea of dancing alone with your shadow to Carl Jung’s idea of the shadow self - the dance with the part of you that you keep hidden. music by Patrick stefan strings arranged by Patrick stefan and played by Gabriele Dikciute & Phillip Keegan Produced by Alex Borwick Mastered by Darragh Nolan Video by Becky Hatchett’.

Animation (4mins)

Stills from the animation: