Sleep Songs are music written around and inspired by breathing data.

In 2018, Stefanie Posavec and I tracked our breathing patterns and those of our husbands for a night as we slept, using data gathered from Spire Stone trackers.

I then created two pieces of choral music that use our breathing rate data as inspiration and creative constraint. Each piece represents a night’s sleep for a different couple. One second of music equals two minutes spent asleep.

The data is grouped to generate five sets of rhythms in the alto parts (mine and Stefanie’s breaths) and tenor parts (our husbands) that have the same total duration as our real breaths, sampled every 10 or 15 minutes.

These musical ‘breaths’ move in and out of sync as our breathing speed fluctuates over the course of the night.

Sleep Song 01
Miriam and Tom
Night of 29-30 August 2018
Time to fall asleep
When we sleep, we breathe together
When we sleep, we dream alone

Sleep Song 02
Stefanie and Steve
Night of 17-18 September 2018
When we sleep, our bodies breathe
When we sleep, the air is still
When we dream, our minds dance
When we sleep, our bodies rest
When we sleep, our minds are still

Credits

Performed by musicians from the Department of Music, Durham University.
Conductor: Theo Golden
Recording and production: Simone Tarsitani

Sleep Songs was commissioned by the Life of Breath project and first exhibited at the Catch Your Breath exhibition, Palace Green Library, Durham, 2018.