Music from the film małni - towards the ocean, towards the shore LP

Undoubtedly one of the best films of 2020, maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore directed by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) "follows Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier's wanderings through each of their worlds as they wonder through and contemplate the afterlife, rebirth, and the place in-between. Spoken mostly in chinuk wawa, their stories are departures from the Chinookan origin of death myth, with its distant beginning and circular shape."

Capping off a decade in which Hopinka produced a dozen short films, volumes of poetry, stunning work in photography and multi-channel film/video installations,  maɬni (pronounced moth-nee) felt like a culmination of his groundbreaking work embedding his own—and other—Indigenous perspective(s) across disciplines. (In fact, you can hear me speak with the artist about the film and his work in a podcast here.) 

With each work of Sky Hopinka's, sound plays a crucial element, and this is reflected in the LP release of  maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore by Grasshopper Film and production company Steady Orbits. Artist and drummer Thaddeus Kellstadt's compositions are removed from the context of the film and given their proper space of focus and attention, while the b-side contains two pieces by Bobby Mercier and Ramiro Ramirez which combine the film's score and its sound-track.