Animal Collective score new documentary about a group of SoundCloud rappers

Crestone is a documentary written, produced and directed by Marnie Ellen Hertzler in partnership with Memory, and follows a group of SoundCloud rappers that live in solitude in Crestone, Colorado over the course of eight days.

The film will be accompanied by a score composed by Animal Collective's Geologist and Deakin. Geologist says of the documentary, "Living in the Sonoran Desert in the early 00’s had a long-lasting and profound effect on me, especially after multiple years in New York City. Since then I’ve had a vague idea for a sound that would reflect that experience, but no project ever led me to it. The images, sounds, stories, and structures created and documented in Crestone finally did. Many thanks to Marnie, her crew, Dead God, the land, and as always, my brother Josh for the inspiration and opportunity to work on this project."

Deakin adds, "I met Marnie when I lived in New Orleans for a brief time in 2015 and we quickly became friends. When she approached me about scoring Crestone I was really excited about it. It felt really natural to ask Brian to team up on this project since we had already been collaborating on a handful of things as a duo in the previous year or so. Having wanted to score a movie for many years, this was an ideal first project to explore the process. For me, the initial phase of developing the ideas for this was just to pull up a scene and sit down at my piano and improvise to the energy I interpreted. In many cases this initial pass was recorded and used for the final composition. This process of using the images, characters, editing and practical sound as a sort of sheet music to play to was really freeing and inspiring."

Animal Collective wrote of the documentary and score on Twitter, "A little less than a year ago we were excited to announce the debut screenings of Crestone at the True/False and SXSW film festivals, with an original score by Deakin and Geologist. That was in early March, 2020. Things changed around then, but the Crestone crew pushed on..."

"with virtual screenings and we took the music and put together an LP. We're now excited to announce that both are getting official releases."

with virtual screenings and we took the music and put together an LP. We're now excited to announce that both are getting official releases. Check below for all the relevant information. Link here to presave the score and preorder the LP - https://t.co/RUkO0e6qhW

— Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) January 14, 2021