Image-makers Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton-Jones have collaborated with UNKLE’s James Lavelle on ads for BMW, Johnnie Walker and Cartier – they all featured in BUG’s retrospective of UNKLE’s music visual history at the BFI Southbank on May 7th.

Now Warren&Nick have created a cross-media campaign for the new UNKLE album Where Did The Night Fall (out this week) which includes a series of images for the special print book accompanying the album release – and the sensual, sexy video for Follow Me Down.

Warren&Nick interpret the music ‘s brooding cinematic atmosphere with smoke, water and the lovely forms of Liberty Ross and friends.

“The thing with James and ourselves is that we’re firm believers in collaboration and out of that comes really interesting things. There’s not a lot of freedom in today’s creative world so when you’re given the space to express yourself it’s really an open invitation to create magic,” says Warren.

“The story, if you want to call it that, is a combination of the otherworldly, spiritual and metaphysical combined with something provocative, strange and beautiful. There’s a strength and resilience to Liberty’s serpentine character that’s underscored with an essence of vulnerability and fragility, so in the end there are various interwoven layers complimenting and colliding with one another to create both harmony and discordance.”

“Over the course of collaborating with certain artists you develop creative relationships that just work – whether that’s due to a similarity of outlook or a certain tacit understanding about how to approach different projects,” says James Lavelle. “Warren&Nick had a really interesting perspective on the music off the album and a great vision for how to build an entire world around that so the partnership with them was ultimately about trusting and respecting that.”

UNKLE
Follow Me Down (Surrender All)
Directors: Warren du Preez, Nick Thornton Jones (Warren&Nick)
Production Company: Rokkit
Executive Producer: Luke Jacobs
Producer: Mikey Levelle
DoP: Daniel Landin
Art Directors: Helen Macintyre, Marcus Sharp
Costume Design: Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby c/o Boudicca
Choreography: Russell Maliphant
Make Up Artist: Alex Box
Hair Artist: Raphaël Salley
Editor: Christophe Williams at The White House
Post Production: Warren&Nick
After Effects: Luke Bellis & Kevin Lamb
3D: Kevin Lamb
Flame: Realise Studio
Models: Liberty Ross, Sophie Willing (Storm Models); Shannon Tillery (Union)
Watch: Quicktime movie