Cradle Songs

Lullabies exist all over the world, but female vocal ensemble Kitka have largely focused on those from Eastern Europe on this; after all, they specialize in the music of the region. Very beautiful it all is too, and largely pure a cappella ("Cradle Song" adds toy piano and toy glockenspiel and "Sednala e Majka Kraj More" has soft harmonium). Some songs break the mold, like the Russian and Ukrainian "Bedtime Story," which does add a spoken story over the singing, while "Aylye, Lyulye, Lyulye" comes from the Yiddish tradition. But the lovely joker in the pack is "Slow to the Dawn," an American/Ladino song that seems to swell under the accompanying strings. It's a quietly delicious album that offers the comfort of a mother singing her children to sleep.