Toby or not to be

The impetus to create this album came from a series of conversations I had with my friend’s son, Toby, about death and dying. Toby was four years old at the time. The experience led me to think more deeply about how ‘we’ thought about death, or more to the point, ‘didn’t want to think about death’.

Death remains a great mystery. Many cultures tell stories about how death came into the world and it is common for death to be personified, an attempt to make the mysterious knowable.

Over the last 30 years there have been numerous pieces of research investigating how ‘death awareness’ affects how we live our lives. They have found that opportunities to deeply contemplate our finite existence can result in profound changes in the way we see the world and how we live our lives.

This weaving of conversations, contemplation, traditional stories, song and music hopes to provide such an opportunity – a provocation to think deeply about our mortality.

The recording is designed to be listened to from beginning to end. The track listings single out the ten featured traditional stories but also include other narratives and music. They are given to help listeners navigate the 80-minute recording should they wish to revisit certain sections.

May the thought of our own deaths fill us with compassion for all life.