11/08/2023

Pauline Anna Strom – Cult of Isis

As with the visual for “Quiet Joy,” Posy Dixon and Isaac Cohen collaborated to create this video for “Cult of Isis” from Pauline Anna Strom’s debut album, Trans-Millenia Consort 𓇣𓇣𓇣

Of their collaboration and interpretation, Posy notes “I’ve heard Pauline speak at length about her appetite for reading—audiobooks providing a portal free of the constraints of space and time, and ancient Egypt being a topic of interest she referenced frequently. In consideration of this, some time was spent reading about the Egyptian deity Isis, and her enduring cult that spread across multiple ancient civilizations, surviving over two thousand years.

I shared this story with Isaac and we talked of this orb (also frequently pictured atop Isis’ head) as a pulsating force of energy spreading through endless fields of life, color-palettes borrowed from the paintings of Belgian surrealist painter Jean-Michael Folon. Somehow ringing true to Pauline’s nomenclature as the Trans-Millenia Consort.

Big caveat: this isn’t a work of scholarship, but an appreciation of storytelling and the practise of world building, I hope in syncopation with the way Pauline worked.”

We’re just two days from the release of Echoes, Spaces Lines, the definitive collection of Pauline Anna Strom’s first three albums (and an unheard fourth from the era, Ocean of Tears), remixed under her guidance by Marta Salogni from the original tapes and remastered + cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates Mastering.