Christabel Dreams - When I Close My Eyes
The passage of time, in a city like Rome, has the attention of many souls, especially those who live far from the Italian capital. The only wheel that makes things add up is the movement of the hands. In the place that has known glory and visibility, they now experience motions of fatigue, detachment, nausea, and fatigue leads to surrender, annoyance and the egregious error of disregarding those who have very high qualities, such as Christabel Dreams, who right from their name reveal how time (living in dreams) is indeed an important element of their existence. Their career has come of age this year, but it has not yet had the chance to live out its existence within embraces and welcomes that it recognise its merits: whether it is a mystery or not is of no interest to the old scribe, for he considers it scandalous.
The melodic line, so mistreated and never fully considered by Italian bands when it comes to certain musical genres linked to Post-Punk, on the part of the three Romans is remarkable, enthralling, and can skilfully lead to movements of poignant emotions. The song in question (a single, hoping for an imminent album) rides the prairies of the 80s, but with those harmonic beats deliciously embedded in the DNA of a country that has now forgotten itself. Delicacy and moody abandon sentences an approach that bears fruit second by second, with the bass holding the heart pulsing as if it had infinite strength in its breaths, the keyboard is chameleon-like and spanning the notes paints a sky of clouds that, starting with the most intimate Clan Of Xymox, throws itself into the Greek Coldwave of the 90s, not forgetting to build castles of decadent sound without crying on the keys. Here, the wisdom is the good sense of not wanting to be bombastic, but rather shy bearers of healthy sparks of rain that in the central evocation light up the bajour of enchantment.
The song form does not hold one's breath because both the verse and the refrain know how to remain fixed in the mind, there is no need to wait for a change of direction: just as a wave does not separate itself from itself, so does this song, a long dream of love that is outrageous in that it never renounces to pay homage to the ancient need to whisper and not to shout.
One could define the type of music with a list of genres that essentially the old scribe considers useless, as they would not describe the beauty and necessity of listening to this peaceful, tear-coloured mantra in flight.
Emmanuele Viola (bass and synth) writes a text that runs under the skin of mystery, with a highly oneiric language, delicate yet powerful at the same time, staging an incredible set of insinuating movements such as waiting and secrets, coldness and selfishness, in a mix in which thoughts and feelings live inside the wires of a telephone. So does the music: it patrols and opens itself up to the mode of a tank with flowers under its tracks, because it could hurt and instead proves to be the perfect accomplice of the text.
Francesco Mignogna plays drums, and everything could be enough: he has the heart of a stream and the power of a little wood that swims without friction, with measured power and imagination flying between his sticks.
Christian Gatti is a vocal witch, a bone that crumbles in our chests to ignite real heat: sensational and powerful, he sings as if he could extinguish the fires and instead creates his own, in a magical, eye-rubbing way. Her singing makes the skin change, becoming a moonbeam on a cuddly day.
When I Close My Eyes is a dream in the traffic of our needs and, through listening to it, we are made tame and devoted to an increasingly necessary introspection: if we are to be aware of what is wrong, let this song at least hold our hand...
Alex Dematteis
Musicshockworld
Salford
12th March 2023
