Megan Ihnen premieres a new music video performance of Rachael Forsyth’s “Hush, Little One” from her Sleep Songs commissioning project as part of Bao Nguyen’s “A Quiet Transition” curatorial project. The concert will be streamed on Saturday, November 20. At 8 PM ET / 7 pm CT. The concert will be streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/experimental_sound_studio. More information on Experimental Sound Studio: https://ess.org

Saturday, November 20, 2021
7:00pm CT
Streaming on Twitch
FREE, $5+ suggested donation (100% goes to the artists)

Lulling Voice features 4 musicians/duo that explore and expand the format of lullaby either simply with their voices or voices and accompanying instruments. Each lullaby in the concert is an invitation to another emotional/narrative dimension. This concert is part of A Quiet Transition, an experimental, curatorial project that adopts lullaby as a framework to create contemplative and restful experiences.

A Quiet Transition

Seemingly modest, the format of lullaby is a vessel where multiple elements intersect with one another. Lullaby is a vocal message, an embodiment of personal sentiments, an oral tradition, a collection of words that float and fly. A lullaby conjures up a trance-like, almost magical state through the voice (or voices) that sing the lullaby and by the tales that lurk in these voices. For a brief moment, lullaby is a bridge between the listener and the lineage of voices and histories of the past. How can we propel the format of a lullaby further, into the future?

Taking lullaby out of its original function as a song that lulls people to sleep, “A Quiet Transition” is an experimental, curatorial project that aims to adopt lullaby as a poetic, generative framework to create restful and contemplative experiences. Lullaby is not simply composed, but also considered, reinterpreted, read and expanded into other multimedia formats.

“A Quiet Transition” orchestrates a line up of zine, workshop, a livestream of music performances, and a digital game. Each of these components focuses on one aspect of lullaby. While the zine “Lyrics without Music” features a collection of lullaby lyrics, the workshop “coo / thrum / whirl : lullaby as collective action” considers how the lullaby can be used to rethink and organize moments of communal rest and care. The livestream concert “Lulling Voices” highlights the texture and power of the voice in carrying the listeners into other mental states. Digital game, “Sweet Dreams to the City She Loves” reflects on the emotional impact of lullaby, as it becomes a familial thread, connecting a late mother and a child.

These diverse mediums are anchored in the hope that, through lullaby, we can be in touch with each other’s voices (literally/symbolically) and experience a moment of magic together.