Whether your week has been good or bad, it certainly can’t hurt to end it with a bit of sacred beauty, so with that in mind, we now present “Holy River,” the latest video from RVA/worldwide duo Lobo Marino.
Whether your week has been good or bad, it certainly can’t hurt to end it with a bit of sacred beauty, so with that in mind, we now present “Holy River,” the latest video from RVA/worldwide duo Lobo Marino. Jameson Price and Laney Sullivan premiered this video last week with a free show at Hardywood, which also featured performances from Gull, Dave Watkins, and Swamp Trees.
The evening actually featured a longer film than what we have for you today–director Todd Raviotta shot footage for three different music videos, which will be released separately online (the other two are forthcoming once Lobo Marino returns from their winter tour) before being combined back into a long-form video that Raviotta jokingly referred to as “Lobo Marino’s The Wall.”
Shot in a variety of idyllic rural locations, the video for “Holy River” has a ritualistic feel to it; Price and Sullivan, along with a cast of a dozen or so friends and family, enact a variety of slow-motion performances. The video shifts back and forth between different scenes, which seem to reference different points in a person’s life. For example, one recurring scene features a pregnant woman dancing in a field; while another has two men building a fire next to an enshrouded body, giving every indication that what the men are preparing is a funeral pyre.
Throughout the video, figures wearing giant owl masks haunt the background, watching the proceedings in what could be interpreted as a sinister or a caretaking fashion. It’s hard to say what a lot of this video means, but the images within it are haunting and memorable, especially at the end when a woman who has been dancing within a tapestry seemingly wrapped around her by one of the owl figures, tears open a pomegranate she has been holding throughout the video. The hands of the other people in the video reach in, and seeds are shared out amongst several onlookers. What does it mean, though? I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while.
It’s only fitting that this video leaves the viewer with more questions than answers, though; “Holy River” is taken from Lobo Marino’s most recent album, City Of Light, which was based around the duo’s experimentation with the harmonium, an instrument that has a big role in the past century-plus of Indian music. In order to “honor the instrument’s history,” Lobo Marino incorporated kirtan, sacred Hindu chant music, into their music. City Of Light was the result. With their reputation for nomadic journeys across the world, it’s no surprise to learn that the band split the recording of this album between the Satchidananda Ashram at Virginia’s Yogaville, and the city of Varansi, India, which was once known as the city of light.
All of this goes a long way toward explaining the mystical, ritualistic aspects of the video for “Holy River.” And of course, some of the questions it leaves us with may be answered by the future installments in the video trilogy of which this is only the first part. But for now, let’s all clear our minds and get ready to be taken on a spiritual audio-visual journey with Lobo Marino’s video for “Holy River,” presented by Natural Science Productions.
Directed by: Todd Raviotta
Natural Science Productions
Staring:
Laney Sullivan
Jameson Price
Parker Galore
Brinson Leigh Kresge
Marlowe Ren Kresge
Sahar Aha
Shawn Everett Jones
Julie Storey
Elysia Honey Houghton
Graham Hyphen
Daniel Upshaw
All puppets and masks created by:
All the Saints Theater Company
Produced by:
Lobo Marino
and
Natural Science Productions
at Stonehaven
Richmond Virginia
City Of Light is available as a name-your-price download from Bandcamp–click here to get your copy.
