David Bowie Returns As A Little Puppet In An Eerie Video By Tony Oursler

After a decade without a new record, David Bowie fans were pretty certain that the legendary musician was de facto retired, but that assumption shattered today with the release of his new single “Where Are We Now” and the announcement of an upcoming album, The Next Day. Accompanying the song is the above video by multimedia artist Tony Oursler, who implemented his signature creepy puppets for the video, with Bowie as a tiny doll seated on a table next to a similarly-shaped companion.

As for the song itself, “Where Are We Now” sounds like it was recorded in an era closer to Bowie’s heyday, and though the melody and pace may bore those more accustomed to the current standards of overproduction in pop music, fans of Bowie’s classic catalog will likely love it, and that’s really all you can ask for with a comeback. We’ll have to wait and see what the album holds.

The announcement of Bowie’s return to the game came today, his 66th birthday, reminding us that though his style has calmed and sobered a bit with age, he was once the flamboyant centerpiece of popular music culture in what is often considered to be the best era in rock music.

Photographer Mick Rock captured the essence of Bowie’s prime alongside many of his musical contemporaries, and years after the era, director Barney Clay uncovered a treasure trove of lost documentation while researching his documentary on Rock. He handed the goods over to The Mill, who transformed it into an interactive film work that amazed Rock himself. The installation, Life on Mars Revisited, toured our 2011 global events, and you can check out our coverage of the project below.

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