Album Review: Chrystabell & David Lynch - 'Cellophane Memories'
Songstress Chrystabell and auteur David Lynch pair up for a strange musical fever dream in new album Cellophane Memories.
Brought to life by a vision Lynch had on a nighttime walk, this transcendental collection exemplifies the light and dark; the visible and the invisible; the conscious and the unconscious, weaving these opposites into music and storytelling. Afterthoughts, reminiscings, and musings transformed into musical form are the lifeblood of Cellophane Memories. “It’s like mood music, not that it creates mood, but more that it reflects your own,” Chrystabell explains.
“She Knew” introduces this grotesque yet beautiful masterpiece of lulling voice, ambient instrument, and incoherent tongue. The song describes a meeting of two people, left touched by the smile of another, encountering each other in an illusory mist. A wistful sadness washes over, enveloping listeners in this enchantingly melancholic realm.
“The Sky Falls” sees Cellophane Memories breaking open like a Chrystabell-Lynch-shaped box of musical oddities. Chrystabell’s vocal tone possesses a certain duality where it’s light and airy one moment, and the next it’s a deep, sonorous sound. How her vocals have been arranged creates an unusual effect where multiple voices emanate, as if Chrystabell has metamorphosised into an entity of breath and rich voice.
“You Know The Rest” tells an intimate story of habits of the night – undressings, dinnertime and what leads from that. Chrystabell’s low voice swirls around catatonic tape glitches and guitar plucks. There is much left to one’s imagination in this track, as it shows the beginning of something promising with the guitar inviting splendid enticement.
Cellophane Memories deepens with “So Much Love,” turning quieter with the pauses between the music and Chrystabell’s voice growing longer. “The countryside was so quiet/That day,” Chrystabell whispers, reflecting the chilly silence. She paints vivid images with her lyrics in this album, her voice acting as a living, breathing paintbrush.
A gentle embrace forms with the next song, “Two Lovers Kiss,” where guitar chimes open up a realm of delicate romance and exciting dawnings. Chrystabell’s melodic warbling complements the lush musical reflections. In Celllophane Memories, a new landscape is brought forth with each composition from the diverse textural palette that Chrystabell and Lynch have moulded.
“The Answer to the Questions” intrigues with a slight off-beat, jazzy drum rhythm. And we are off in another direction. Their audio manipulation of the drum reminds me of a washing machine; clothes like musical instruments swishing around inside. There’s something of another time in this one, yet it is indistinguishable – could it be of the 1930s or something far off in the future?
“With Small Animals” features Chrystabell’s alluring humming and mentions of the sun and mountain climbing. Her voice soars higher, mirroring the words she sings, reaching ecstatic heights we’ve never heard before. There’s a lifting feeling in this one, taking us up into the second half of the album. Ambient overload drives us out into the next song.
The more darkly coloured eflections in a Blade” sees Cellophane Memories intensify with a more bass-heavy focus, metallic overtones, and jarring vocalisations from Chrystabell entrancing listeners in a haunting mystique. Sounds like rhythmic breathing – alost mechanical – appear in the second half as overpowering strings rise from their depths.
Chrystabell woos us with a story of a beautiful, light-filled garden in “Dance of Light” as dusty ambient pads gracefully sweep through the background. Lyrics like “The air was alive/Pieces were everywhere” hint at the nuclear aftermath of a catastrophic break-up, but appears to indicate an almost Christ-like experience despite the turmoil from the descriptive sentiments.
“Sublime Eternal Love” sees the departure of Cellophane Memories with the aid of a pleasantly nostalgic synth pad; Chrystabell opening the door for us to leave the multiverse we’ve become so acquainted with. Feelings of simplicity and peace filter through the short but sweet final track, leaving a lasting impression on listeners.
Chrystabell and Lynch have pulled us into the comforting disquiet of Cellophane Memories where past and present privately converge in the same room with us, the watchful audience, standing in silent awe. ‘Experimentation’ is a keyword of this collective, as is ‘subjectivity.’ The artistry and creation of these two knows no bounds, and I very much look forward to their next creative project.
Words by Sydney Kaster
