Abe Yae: Lullabies

 If you wish to obtain this audio CD, please contact Abraham Ravett.

These recordings of Abe Yae were made during the summer, 1993 in Tono, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. I utilized a Sony TC-D5M professional cassette recorder and a variety of microphones. With the support of an Artist Fellowship from the Japan Foundation, my family and I came to this region to make a 16mm film inspired by Yanagita Kunio's early 20th century book of regional folktales The Legends of Tono (Tōno Monogatari). In tandem with environmental sounds recorded in the field, I wanted to include the music of local musicians. Once introduced to Abe san's magnificent voice and her renditions of Warabe uta and Komori uta (lullabies), I knew that they would become part of the film's sonic landscape. Several of these tracks were included in Horse/Kappa/House.

In the process of archiving my work and finding a venue that would preserve these recordings, I decided to produce a CD that would serve as a record of those field recordings.

Ryan Mihaly organized and edited the tracks and without his dedication to the project, the CD would not have been made.