GbR’s “Roscosmos Radio”: A Cosmic Stop-Motion Odyssey Built by Hand

The German music group GbR has always embraced the surreal, the analog, and the wonderfully strange—but their newest stop-motion music video, “Roscosmos Radio,” marks their most ambitious handcrafted production to date. Created over the course of a full year, the film is an explosion of miniature set design, detailed puppetry, and expressive animation crafted by a powerhouse team of independent artists including Xaver Held, Niki Hermkes, and Albert Radl.

Released alongside GbR’s Antenne 3 EP, the video channels a retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by Soviet-era space exploration, vintage radio consoles, and painterly sci-fi dreamscapes. Every frame looks like something pulled from a cosmic puppet theater—full of tactile textures, bold character silhouettes, and absurdist energy that fits perfectly within GbR’s evolving visual universe.

What makes “Roscosmos Radio” shine is the seamless integration of craft disciplines. Xaver Held, who co-directed the piece and wrote the story, also helped shape the film’s world through set building and conceptual groundwork. Niki Hermkes provided the animatic, character design, props, visual effects, and final color grading—bringing a graphic sensibility and painterly finish to the film that elevates the handcrafted feel. Meanwhile, veteran stop-motion artist Albert Radl handled cinematography, lighting, and animation with his signature practical finesse. His lighting blends analog glows, dramatic contrast, and atmospheric haze, making the miniatures feel both intimate and cinematic.

The puppets themselves, created by Ulrich Jakob of Neat Feature Studio, show an impressive attention to detail. Jakob’s fabrication work has become well-known for its precision, clean armatures, and smart material choices, all of which shine here. Costumes by Liane Pförtner add soft textile intricacies to each character, while the collaborative props and scenic elements crafted by Held, Hermkes, and their expanded team bring the retro-sci-fi world to life.

Behind the scenes, the set-building crew—Held, Tim Mertes, Norbert Mertes, Marijan Kurtow, and Joshua Pfeiffer—constructed an eclectic universe of spacecraft consoles, radio towers, lunar landscapes, and miniature architecture. These sets feel lived in, expressive, and very much “made by hand,” capturing the analog charm that makes stop-motion so immersive.

Post-production, led by Held and Hermkes, preserves that tactile quality. Instead of smoothing imperfections away digitally, the artists embraced the real textures, adding gentle film grain, soft halation, and painterly skies that reinforce the physicality of the world. Even the sound design—handled by GbR themselves—feels like it belongs in a lo-fi transmission drifting through space.

“Roscosmos Radio” is the kind of music video that reminds us why stop motion continues to evolve: it’s a medium where every detail matters, where craftsmanship and storytelling merge into something truly unique. GbR, Radl Animation, and Niki Hermkes have delivered a project that is imaginative, cohesive, and brimming with personality—one that feels ripe for further exploration. If GbR ever decided to create an entire stop-motion sci-fi opera, we’d be first in line.

For fans of stop motion, practical craft, or ambitious independent filmmaking, this short is a must-see.