Abigail Lapell - Lullabies (2023)

Abigail Lapell’s "Lullabies" is a haunting collection of traditional songs from around the world, arranged and performed on classical guitar and vocals. Recorded by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies at his Toronto studio, the project includes songs in English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish, German, Japanese and Welsh. The recording features original guitar and vocal arrangements and, in some cases, new English lyrical adaptations. "Lullabies" also includes one original song in English, based on a fragment of a half-remembered bedtime song from her mother. The project was inspired in part by a bout of insomnia during COVID lockdowns, and fueled by the exigencies of isolation throughout 2021-22. With repertoire drawn from her experience as an early childhood music educator, the album also coincided with the arrival of several babies in Lapell’s extended family, and with her and her partner’s own journey trying to conceive. Alternately sweet and foreboding, this body of work illuminates some of the darker themes lurking beneath the surface of so many beloved folk tunes. Like fairy tales and traditional ballads of all kinds, these story-songs often touch upon deeper cultural memories, spiritual lessons or cautionary tales. At the same time, their familiar and comforting imagery the moon and stars in orbit; an intimate fireside tableau; landscapes shrouded in darkness ultimately hold the promise of safe passage between waking and dreams, through the liminal space at the border between earthly and numinous realms. Above all, these lullabies are dedicated to dreamers of all ages, and to the eternal human quest for a good night’s sleep. Abigail Lapell is an indie-folk songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Toronto. Her three albums have won three Canadian Folk Music Awards (English Songwriter of the Year in 2020/2023, and Contemporary Album of the Year in 2017) and garnered over 40 million streams on Spotify.