Sam Slatcher - City of Sanctuary (Intro)

from Stories of Sanctuary by Sam Slatcher and the Sanctuary Seekers

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about

This track documents the lives of two refugees, interwoven together with Sam Slatcher's song City of Sanctuary. Kareem, a 19 year old Syrian refugee, and Leon, now in his eighties, who is the son of a refugee family who fled Belgium during the First World War in 1915. Despite their stories being a hundred years apart, the memory of how their journey was remembered with reference to time, need, hunger and the vulnerability of travelling without papers has striking resemblances.

You can find the full version of Sam's song at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=auCmemjDluk

lyrics

A thousand years ago on an island in Northumbria
Dragon ships arrived in the darkness of the night
Monks they did flee and took all their treasure
And carried carefully, the sleeping refugee.

With his body growing heavy, they took it as a sign
To rest him on a hill, that soon became a shrine
Hundred years later and it would be known
You could knock and you could find a safe place
from the snow.

In these ancient streets, there’s a heartbeat of sanctuary
All are pilgrims of a kind. In these stones you’re not alone,
there’s a place to be
In the city of a thousand years,
In the city of a thousand more
In the city of sanctuary.

credits

from Stories of Sanctuary, released November 9, 2018
Lyrics and music: Sam Slatcher
Voice 1: Leon Le Dune
Voice 2: Kareem Awad

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about

Sam Slatcher Durham, UK

Sam Slatcher is a folk singer-songwriter living in Durham, North East England. His honest and reflective songwriting, delivered with a calming and delicate voice captures the warmth of humanity and a longing for peace and justice.

To date, Sam has released his first EP 'In Unlikely Places (April 2018), the collaborative album 'Stories of Sanctuary' (Nov 2018) and 'Chaos & Solitude' (May 2020) ... more

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