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 at his Toronto studio, the project includes songs in English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish, German, Japanese, and Welsh and 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.
Today, the celebrated songwriter is sharing “Isabeau” which brings sparse plucked strings and haunting layers of vocal harmonies to the beloved traditional French lullaby. “Isabeau s’y promène” (“Isabeau Goes Walking”) tells the story of a young girl who goes walking in her garden by the water’s edge, where she meets 30 sailors aboard a boat. The youngest of them starts singing a beautiful song, which she wants to learn. With its mediaeval feel and repetitive structure, the song casts an enchanting, otherworldly spell.
MORE ABOUT LULLABIES
Lapell’s first entirely solo recording, the project was inspired in part by a bout of insomnia during COVID-19 lockdowns, and fueled by the exigencies of isolation throughout 2021-2022. With repertoire drawn from her experience as an early childhood music educator, the album also coincided with the arrival of several new 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 and 2023, and Contemporary Album of the Year in 2017) and garnered over 30 million Spotify streams. Lapell tours widely across Canada and the U.S., performing on vocals, harmonica, piano and finger-style guitar.
ABIGAIL LAPELL TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
10/10/23 – Winnipeg MB – Park Theatre %
10/11/23 – Saskatoon SK – Broadway Theatre %
10/12/23 – Calgary AB – Festival Hall %
10/13/23 – Sherwood Park AB – Festival Place %
10/14/23 – Rocky Mountain House AB – Rival Trade Brewing Co %
10/15/23 – Red Deer AB – Bo’s Bar & Stage %
10/18/23 – Penticton BC – Dream Café %
10/19/23 – Vancouver BC – Biltmore Theatre %
10/20/23 – Victoria BC – Capital Ballroom %
10/21/23 – Cumberland BC – Waverley Hotel %
10/22/23 – Langley BC – Bez Arts Hub %
11/04/23 – Moab UT – Moab Folk Festival Festival
11/15/23 – Toronto ON – Tranzac Club
11/16/23 – Trumansburg NY – Big Sky
11/17/23 – Sheffield, MA – New England Performance Series
