The Royal Arctic Institute is a cinematic instrumental post-jazz group from New York City. They have been recording and releasing records since 2017. Since forming in 2016, the band has been a revolving door of different musicians comprising several different lineups. The current lineup is composed of drummer Lyle Hysen (Das Damen, Arthur Lee), guitarist John Leon (Roky Erickson, Summer Wardrobe, Abra Moore), and bassist David Motamed (Das Damen, Two Dollar Guitar, Arthur Lee, Townes Van Zandt). The band name is a reference to the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. All three members of The Royal Arctic Institute have spent decades playing in various ensembles, working as studio musicians, backing musicians, and touring musicians.

TOURISTS own Eric Kerns will screen vintage Super8 silent films from his collection while The Royal Arctic Institute improvises soundtracks on the spot. The Royal Arctic Institute is a cinematic instrumental post-jazz group from New York City. They have been recording and releasing records since 2017. Since forming in 2016, the band has been a revolving door of different musicians comprising several different lineups. The current lineup is composed of drummer Lyle Hysen (Das Damen, Arthur Lee), guitarist John Leon (Roky Erickson, Summer Wardrobe, Abra Moore), and bassist David Motamed (Das Damen, Two Dollar Guitar, Arthur Lee, Townes Van Zandt). The band name is a reference to the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. All three members of The Royal Arctic Institute have spent decades playing in various ensembles, working as studio musicians, backing musicians, and touring musicians.

A beloved member of the Sing for your Slumber family returns to share some songs during our 2026 Winter Read-Treat.

GoldenOak’s music is rooted in the natural landscape. Their songs move in an organic, grounding direction, shaped by rich, folk-influenced sibling harmony. Fronted by siblings Zak and Lena Kendall, the Maine-based band has built a steady and growing fan base through a sound that feels both intimate and quietly powerful. This approach is clearly reflected in their new album, All the Light in Autumn. The record deepens GoldenOak’s sound, building on their indie folk foundation with the addition of drum machines and synths, while keeping folk-influenced vocal harmonies front and center. Lyrically, rather than offering easy answers, All the Light in Autumn invites listeners to slow down and reflect on responsibility, connection, and care for the places we live in. The album artwork mirrors this approach, with nine birds representing the nine songs and the individual stories within them. Beyond their recorded work, GoldenOak tours nationally and has shared the stage with artists such as Hiss Golden Messenger, Sierra Hull, and Blitzen Trapper. They also host their own music festival in their hometown of Farmington, Maine. Under the Oaks Music Festival is a two-day event featuring live music, workshops, and camping along the Sandy River. Now in its fourth year, the festival has become a pillar of the community the band is building.

LILY TALMERS is a songwriter and musician keen on capturing the unique interplay of sorrow and joy. Raised in Michigan and now based in Brooklyn, NY, her lyricism is spiritual and strange—vivid images that range from sludge-covered and dismal to childlike and wondrous. Drawing from heady 60's folk revivalists as Leonard Cohen and Judee Sill, her Midwestern-accented melodies are coated with intimacy and refined wit. Lily’s work as a songwriter and bandleader have been tireless in her time in New York, arranging and re-arranging her music in order to play alongside the musicians that inspire her most– fiddlers, horn and woodwind players, pianists, rhythm sections, singers, Greek bouzouki players, among others. Her music opens itself and finds a way to host some of the most brilliant improvisers and performers crawling around Brooklyn. Lily’s strange melodies and harmonic choices allude to a wide musical past, informed by Greek, Lusophone, and western classical music, in addition to the Americana cannons. Her records are all captured live and feature stylistic nods that unbind genre. SAM WEBER is a Portland-based songwriter whose reputation precedes him. If you haven’t seen him in your town on one of his many extended tours, you might have seen his name on marquees beside Bahamas and Feist, or in liner notes as a songwriter on the next Madison Cunningham record. His songcraft is only rivaled by his musicianship, both of which are disciplined enough to stun and feel effortless. He’s well-practiced at his trade, touring solo or with an ensemble domestically and abroad since 2013. His relentless output — now counting seven full length records in his discography — has led to an examination of human existence, eternal in a fragmenting modern world. His latest LP, Shape Confused Cowboy Be You pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a songwriter in the 21st century.

Oshima Brothers, a Japanese-Italian alt-pop sibling duo from the coast of Maine, make open-hearted music with smooth blood harmonies and groovy guitar lines. On stage, Sean and Jamie offer keys, bass, drums, looping, dance moves, and magic. Offstage, the brothers enjoy sipping espresso, tinkering with guitar pedals, hosting dinner parties, and writing together in their spare bedroom studio. Embracing a DIY approach, they produce every inch of their songs and videos from scratch, including a 45-minute album film. Maine Public Radio says their “harmonies can’t be beat. They are uplifting and, let’s face it, we need uplifting these days.”

Two-piece, Cleveland based, adventure folk band The Baker’s Basement (tBB) features the eclectic musical stylings of vocalist/drummer Kate Dedinsky and vocalist/guitarist Adam Grindler. At their rhythmic core pulses an orange striped, homemade, bucket-drum concoction, the funky back beat on which Dedinsky performs standing up with her signature swagger and sway. The duo’s intimate sound, rooted in a spirited flavor of folk music and topped with playful vocal layers, often volleyed to-and-fro across the stage, offers a humorous yet heart-wrenching sonic signature that’s altogether their own.

LIA KOHL is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago. Trained as a cellist, she also incorporates synthesizers, field recordings, toy instruments and radios into her work, searching for a balance between virtuosity and curiosity. She gravitates towards sound practices which reveal and speak to their time and place: field recording, improvisation, radio broadcast and transmission. She often focuses on mundane or pedestrian sounds – sounds which often go unnoticed or under-documented, searching for the profound, unknown, and beautiful in everyday life. ZACHARY GOOD is a multifaceted clarinetist, Baroque recorder player, composer, arranger, and teacher based in Chicago. He navigates Classical, historically-informed, and contemporary performance practices in chamber music, solo, orchestral, experimental, and collaborative spaces. Zachary is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and a founding Co-Artistic Director and member of the eccentric performance collective Mocrep.

almost olive is Jacqui Armbruster and Karl Henry: two like-minded, multi-faceted multi-instrumentalists who bring their omnivorous musical approaches to songwriting and arranging, crafting songs and tunes informed by tradition and inspired by the ever-changing musical landscape that surrounds them. Through vulnerable storytelling, tight vocal harmony, infectious groove, and the occasional detour through an old-time romp, the duo explores the vastness of the human experience through two voices and four hands constantly at work. Their debut EP, “almost album” was released in July 2024, and their first full-length record will be released in Spring 2026 with support from Nine Athens Music.

Born and raised in Atlanta, HUEY’s songwriting is deeply rooted in southern folk music. After playing in various groups for the past eight years, most notably her own full band "Huey & The Heaven-sent", she has become a household name in the Atlanta music scene. "[She] brings some diversity to what people perceive southern music to be" says Atwood Magazine, following up the release of their second full-length LP "How to Keep Things Alive". Heart-clenching and poignant lyrics, married with vocal stylings reminiscent of Dolores O'Riordan, Huey's songwriting is brutally honest. With songs like " Potential Missed" and " Losing me", she showcases her ability to write catchy songs without losing their substance. A bit of that Nashville twang with an aftertaste of 90's style--she's carved out a slice of the genre that sounds like nobody else. JACOB KYNARD has spent a few years driving around playing songs in backyards, bars, churches, nursing homes, and vape stores. He’s recording a debut album at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS produced by Matt Patton (Drive-By Truckers) and features John Smith (Dexateens) on lead guitar. He's hoping that you'll give it a listen.

TAKAAT (pronounced tuh-cot), meaning “noise” in the Tuareg language Tamashek, is the trio of Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun, and Souleymane Ibrahim, also known as the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar. TAKAAT is sonic chaos, improvisation, freedom of exploration, and the punk styles of bands such as Fugazi and Unwound, all mixed together with the guitar music from the Sahel. TAKAAT started during soundchecks while on the road with Mdou Moctar when the trio indulged their shared love for amps cranked to 11 and the sound of blown out speakers. Towards the end of 2023, the three started writing music together, inspired by their shared experiences with the sounds and energy of Hausa bar bands, gritty soukous, and 2000s post-punk. The music of TAKAAT is intense, dark, and energetic. Deeply inspired by the DIY ethos of punk, Ahmoudou, Mikey, and Souleymane capture that thrill of the new and the ecstasy of togetherness in these heavy rockers. TAKAAT follows in the spirit of the independent music culture that birthed hardcore basement shows, bedroom tape labels, and generator-powered pick-up wedding bands.