ABIGAIL LAPELL’S NEW ALBUM, SHADOW CHILD, ARRIVES MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND, MAY 8, 2026 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC
WATCH / SHARE “SHADOW CHILD” FT. FRAZEY FORD HERE
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PRE-SAVE SHADOW CHILD HERE
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN APRIL 10
TICKETS ON SALE HERE
Last month, Award-winning Toronto singer-songwriter Abigail Lapell unveiled her upcoming new album Shadow Child, an album about motherhood whose nine songs each represent a month of gestation. Today, Lapell is sharing the title track of her upcoming album, which features guest vocalist Frazey Ford and her already otherworldly vocals harmonizing with a theremin. The song’s simple, driving acoustic and baritone guitars underpin lyrics that explore the work of childbirth, both its joys and terrors.
“Shadow Child” arrives with a stop motion animation video that Lapell herself “made years ago, about a figure creating another figure out of clay,” she says. “It was shot in one ‘take’, all in camera, and filmed backwards – so that, when played in reverse, it shows the creature emerging from a formless blob.
“I recently found all my old super 8 films, and I thought this odd little black and white claymation might fit well with ‘Shadow Child’, a song about pregnancy and childbirth – creation and transformation.
“But when I actually tried pairing the two, it was crazy. The unedited ‘backwards’ visuals fit the song exactly perfectly – like down to the second. Complete with the final reveal of the figure’s shadow, and then my own hands in silhouette, returning it to a formless blob. I couldn’t believe it. Even the unintended strobe effect from my camera’s ‘shutter ghosting’; it kind of reminds me of the flickering of an ultrasound.
“So this video feels like a really wild collaboration with my much younger self. And a celebration of the oddness of “creation”, in both senses – as an artist and, now, as a mother."
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MORE ABOUT SHADOW CHILD
Every mother has a unique story. One thing is true for every mother, though: there’s no deadline quite like a pregnancy. Abigail Lapell was pregnant with her first child when she booked studio time on Vancouver Island to make an album about motherhood. The nine songs on Shadow Child, one for each month of gestation, had to be ready before then, and her return flight was booked on the last day she could safely fly in her third trimester.
Working with producer Colin Stewart (Dan Mangan, Black Mountain), Lapell finished her songs in the studio and on rural walks beside the Pacific Ocean. She enlisted some of her favourite singers, all British Columbians, all mothers: Frazey Ford, Jill Barber, Pharis Romero. “They’re all people with unique, distinctive voices,” she says, “which is what I’m drawn to.”
For Shadow Child, musically, Lapell was looking for a stark, acoustic sound, as opposed to 2024’s JUNO Award-nominated Anniversary (recorded in Niagara with Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker) and 2022’s acclaimed Stolen Time (recorded in Montreal with Howard Bilerman, featuring E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons).
Lapell’s road to motherhood was fraught, involving years of IVF and a 2023 miscarriage — that she experienced on stage while on tour. (She finished her set.) Her son was born in November 2024. The song cycle of Shadow Child covers joy and loss, using metaphors from Maritime tragedy, “little cannibals,” reproductive health, acquiring language, and lives altered by the arrival of a newborn. The title track refers to ultrasound imaging of “a liminal person that doesn’t quite exist yet,” says Lapell. “Their status is ontologically blurry.”
WATCH / SHARE “HAZEL” FT. JILL BARBER HERE
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ABIGAIL LAPELL ON TOUR
April 10 - Saint John, NB - Imperial Theatre
May 8 - Richards Landing, ON - Algoma Trad
May 14 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena
May 15 - Exeter, NH - Word Barn
May 16 - Cambridge, MA - Club Passim
May 17 - New York, NY - Cafe Wha?
May 22 - Toronto, ON - Hugh's Room
May 23 - Chelsea, ON - Motel Chelsea
May 24 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Tennis Club
August 7-9 - Red Rock ON - Live from the Rock Folk Festival
More Dates To Be Announced Soon
PRE-SAVE SHADOW CHILD HERE
SHADOW CHILD TRACKLIST
01 Whistle Song (One In A Million)
02 Hazel ft. Jill Barber
03 Shadow Child ft. Frazey Ford
04 Mocking Bird ft. Dana Sipos
05 Talking To Myself
06 Little Cannibal
07 So Long ft. Pharis Romero
08 Mother Tongue
09 Sing A Rainbow
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