Heather Nicol's newest audio work positions itself at both extremes of the human life cycle. Built upon songs for lulling infants to sleep or easing passage into a final resting place, this immersive sound installation uses multichannel audio and light to encourage introspection across oral cultures.

Prelude/Requiem emerges from a twelve-year research practice in which the artist collected audio recordings that she made during encounters with her family members, fellow creatives, migrant youth, newcomers, travellers, and friends. Some were professional musicians, but most were not. A fifteen-year-old Nigerian refugee shares melodies from home while displaced in Berlin. A new mother sings Bulgarian lullabies to her unborn child. An aging Holocaust survivor recalls Hebrew cradle songs with assistance from his wife. A Turkish conductor leads choir in Minhrpa/Banff. 

Fragments of Manuel Cardosa’s 1624 polyphonic Requiem are added to layers of sighs, whispers, and drums. They signal the passage of time—a breath, a movement, or a procession. Every fragment is a capsule of connection. Its inflections preserve the sensitivity, vulnerability, and generosity of each encounter to celebrate the power of aural gathering.