Songs For a Lost Pod
About Songs For a Lost Pod:
Songs For a Lost Pod is a multi-disciplinary show by Leah Abramson that combines scientific research, orca vocalizations turned into beats, and the impacts of intergenerational trauma on families. Told from the perspective of various whale species, as well as their human counterparts, Songs For a Lost Pod uses music, storytelling, and shadow puppetry to juxtapose cetacean histories with one family’s experience of surviving the Holocaust.
With a 5-piece band, 6-piece choir, narrator, and two-person shadow puppetry team, the show is an immersive and sensory experience that guides audiences into a space of contemplation and connection.
Songs For a Lost Pod premiered with three sold-out shows in May 2022, presented by Music On Main and the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver, BC at the SFU Goldcorp Centre For the Arts.
Background:
Songs For a Lost Pod began as singer-songwriter/composer Leah Abramson’s fourth album of original songs. Released in November 2017, the album was accompanied by a comic book illustrated by artist Taylor Brown-Evans, to explain the stories and research behind the songs. Told from the perspective of various whale species, the songs explore interspecies communication, intergenerational trauma, and grief for a polluted planet.
Originally written and composed for her Masters of Fine Arts thesis at UBC, Abramson researched in particular the history of the resident orca near Vancouver and its surroundings. From 1965-1973, groups of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest were regularly rounded up and sold to marine parks. Many died during the process of capture or within a few years of living in captivity. The A5 pod, a family of northern resident salmon-eating orca, lost at least three of their family members to capture on December 11, 1969. Exactly one year and one day later, Leah Abramson’s mother and grandparents came to Canada as refugees from Communist Czechoslovakia. It’s the intersection of these stories that lives in the subtext of the songs, and is braided into the storytelling of the live show.
In the largest sense, many of the songs from Songs For a Lost Pod were also written in collaboration with the A5 pod, as musician collaborators such as Andrew Lee (Holy Hum), Sandro Perri, Antoine Bédard, and Aidan O’Rourke (Lau), were given selected A5 pod orca vocalizations, along with Abramson’s other field recordings, to turn into beats and tracks, which formed the backbone of Abramson’s songwriting process, and the rhythms behind much of the music.
In its first iteration, Songs For a Lost Pod had three musical performances in 2017-18 with a 12-piece ensemble and narrator, directed by Leah Abramson. The show’s narrator, writer Barbara Adler, provided details originally included in the comic book, while also adding original writing to tie the songs together thematically.
From these presentations, Abramson rallied a creative team to continue the development of a full-length, interdisciplinary stage show: director/dramaturg Megan Stewart, producer and musician Joanna Dundas, and visual team Mind of a Snail.
Though the song cycle remains at the heart of the performance, a narrative script by Leah now juxtaposes the whale histories with her own family and their experience surviving the Holocaust and its aftermath. Mind of a Snail’s beautifully handcrafted projections dance on the screen, creating an impressionistic and largely non-representational visual world to support the songs and narration.
Credits:
Music and lyrics: Leah Abramson in collaboration with Antoine Bédard, J.J. Ipsen, Andrew Lee, Aidan O’Rourke, Sandro Perri, Arliss Renwick, Marten Timan
Script: Leah Abramson
Dramaturgy: Megan Stewart, with additional dramaturgy by Barbara Adler
Visuals: Mind of a Snail
Graphic Design: Kali Malinka
Producers: Leah Abramson, Megan Stewart, Joanna Dundas
For presentation inquiries, please email leahabramsonmusic @ gmail.com