"Render us rich and flourishing ; make us also wise and chaste.”
‍An Orphic Hymn

Ancient City holds in its sound world a beauty based on nature and rhythms of the land. It opens in a forest and ends in a town square with the three main characters, Dave, Marlon, and Paola, transformed by the rites and rituals of life. We incorporated field samples — from water, to foley inspired moments —wanting them to feel hard-edged against the rich tapestry of layered sound. Ancient City is about ordinary and magical lives, and it forces one to submit to an abstract world — a film guided by the invisible — from sounds of nature to the human voice, encouraging us to look at every day decisions and their consequences in a deeply human way. Every life holds ancestral guidance, and every person often masks their identity, with ceremonies and rituals binding disparate lives and moments, adding meaning and cogency across different cultures and societies. Ancient City is enigmatic, symbolic, ceremonial, concealing, mystical, sacred, cultural, theatrical and in the end, we hope, transformative.

A listening guide: The darkest hour of the night. Stars twinkle above, punctuating a void which draws your attention upwards, contemplating the vastness of the cosmos. Choose a seat, or lie on your back on one of the soft places amongst the fields of corn and wheat, or nestle in with the blankets or cushions of grass, bales of hay. Sounds of nature transport you far away from any urban context. The first rays of sunlight begin to streak across the landscape as the society awakens and begins to go about their daily lives. A spring gushes out of the craggy banks of the river; the refreshing stream works its way down to the swimming hole that has formed at the bend, you play. Winter stillness captures you, other realms are investigated. Clapping, trills, and singing bring you to lose yourself in joy and light. The first stars once again appear. You are utterly alone. Nothing is visible. Everything is visible. — Thaddeus Strassberger

Tracks

‍
01 - Preparation

02 - Rites and Rituals

03 - Between Beliefs and Laws

04 - Ancestral Winds

05 - Rites of Migration

06 - Other Realms feat. Stuart Bogie

07 - Transformation

Credits

‍Paola Prestini, composition, vocals
Dave Nelson, trombone, looper, electronics, voice and improvisations
Marlon Patton, drums, percussion, Moog bass, electronics and improvisations
Stuart Bogie, clarinet
Produced by Paola Prestini, Dave Nelson and Marlon Patton
‍

Recorded at Bone Hollow Recording
Mixed by Dave Nelson
Mastered by Tyler McDiarmid

Design by Scott Devendorf
Styled by Nicholas K
Photography by Marco Valentin
Masks by Julian Crouch

For VisionIntoArt:
Paola Prestini, Co-Founder & Co-Artistic Director
Jeffrey Zeigler, Co-Artistic Director
Ras Dia, Producing Director
Paige Lester, Managing Producer
Daniella Omeruo, Marketing & Production Associate
Jill Steinberg, Photographer and Board Chair

© Paola Prestini Publishing, ASCAP
DNel Music, ASCAP
Marlon Patton Music, BMI

‍