Shearwater Kickstarting Golden Dossier Project

Shearwater are gearing up for a very busy 2010 supporting their upcoming release, The Golden Archipelago. Most recently, they released a preview of the album, which also gave fans a glimpse at the so-called Golden Dossier, the album's hopeful accompaniment. Today, we got word via the band's Facebook that the dossier will be handled through Kickstarter instead of the label, Matador.

"In conjunction with the release of Shearwater’s new album, The Golden Archipelago, singer Jonathan Meiburg and designer Mark Ohe have created a beautiful, full-color, 75-page, 8 x 10.5” dossier as a companion piece...Meiburg and Ohe worked for weeks to compile and design the dossier, which was originally intended to accompany a special edition of the album. But the cost of printing the complete dossier at full size turned out to be prohibitive, and the band's record label - though thrilled with the result - couldn't figure out a way to make it work. It fell to the band to make the dossier available as it was originally intended."

Now to receive the dossier as originally intended by Meiburg & Co., you'll need to donate at least $30 to the project. There are gift incentives for online purchasers and if you're the first person to donate over $150, you'll receive the very last copy of the rare and out-of-print Sham Wedding/Hoax Funeral Split EP with Okkervil River. The project closes on January 31.

Listen to the first single from The Golden Archipelago, "Castaways" (mp3), courtesy Matador Records. Watch the preview of the Golden Dossier after the jump.