There’s a lullaby I’ve always loved called “Wooly Wooly Gong.” My friend Merrill wrote it years before she became a parent, yet I’m convinced I can hear her predicting what it will feel like to care for a young child. The music is tender and loving, but also foggy and addled — and at times a little scary. That these feelings can coexist seems impossible.

I was talking to Kyle Bruckmann about impossibly soft sounds on the oboe, and through a series of coachings I assembled a simple lullaby melody from pitches obtained through alternate fingerings. It was a joy to work with Kyle and Kathryn Schulmeister to create this cloudy oboe/bass dreamscape, which – for me, at least – prefigures a gloriously full night’s sleep.