Door of Sleep

In a mystical forest, a couple of parents have a little infant who needs to get to sleep, but the child is all happy, laughing and playing. They sing a little lullaby for their child.

This is a song that was meant to be an instrumental (this became the Johelidyo Mix afterwards), but I later changed my mind and wrote some Cabo Verdean Creole lyrics for it. The song has a special meaning for me because it’s a duet with my mother, and during production I used snippets of my first son cooing when he was a baby. Three generations in one song and on video.

Still in the forest, the parents are joined by a beautiful elf, who sings a soothing lullaby to finally guide our little friend to doze off into peaceful slumber. Again, this song carries snippets of my sons’ voices. The music video, like Sleep Tight, features precious footage of my two sons as infants, adding a personal touch to the heartwarming lullaby.

The child has dozed off, and we see him in a world beyond the mystical forest. A beautiful, majestic Sakura tree with a shiny door in its trunk lures him in. Our little friend opens the door and enters a special place, where he sees a portal in the form of an eye.

The song’s title is a little wink at rapid eye movement sleep, a stage of sleep marked by vivid dreams.

The little child enters the portal, and just like Alice in Wonderland, he falls through a tunnel made of stars and galaxies, and at the end of it, he enters a dream world.

Our little friend is strolling through the dream world. He sees magical creatures everywhere: unicorns and elves, and he’s very happy. He’s laughing, but then, at a certain point in his dream journey, he enters a darker, more mysterious, nightmarish realm. Startled, he wakes up crying.

After a frightening experience in the dreamland, the baby wakes up crying. But a loving parent is there to comfort our little friend. A sweet lullaby sounds through the forest and eases the infant’s fears, guiding him back to a peaceful slumber filled with pink clouds, unicorns, and magical fwiends.

The Johelidyo Mix is the original version of Sleep Tight — the instrumental the song grew from, before I added the Cabo Verdean Creole vocals.