Celsa Maxwell – In the Mythical Land of Sound

Celsa Maxwell (26) no longer knows what silence is for a year or two. Fortunately, we still know how a wonderful record should sound. She recorded her debut In the Mythical Land of Sound after she became almost completely deaf in one ear. A conversation about a world of noise and melancholy in mono. One morning you wake up. And you can't hear anything with your right ear. It sounds like a real nightmare. And as an unimaginable horror scenario for an aspiring musician. Two years ago it happened to Celsa Maxwell, née Celsa Crabbe. She awoke completely disoriented, deaf in one ear. Medical research offered no solace. "I wasn't sick, and I just went to sleep the night before. No excesses, no excessive noise. Was it a virus? Nobody knows. "The first six months were terribly difficult for me. Hearing nothing on one side is annoying in everyday life anyway, but the noise weighed the most mentally. That noise is there day and night. I don't know what silence is anymore. I'm used to the world getting really loud, but it took a long time. Perhaps also because at first I did not want to accept that the damage is irreversible. That my life would be forever different. From day to day I have become someone else. As if overnight I had to say goodbye to the person I used to be." "The first months after the diagnosis were a dark, very confusing period. I locked myself at home, didn't want to face anyone. My life was on pause before it had really begun. This probably doesn't sound very nice, but somehow it was reassuring that the pandemic suddenly shut down the rest of the world. This way I didn't have to miss everything in the outside world, and I got the chance to take my time quietly for the acceptance process. That was also necessary. If I'm being very honest, that process is still going on. Some days are better than others." In the title song of her debut she sings "Lost in a haze of an eternal maze". She felt that way for a long time too. "That pitch-black thought hung over me like a cloud: the idea that I would live forever in a haze. In the first six months after my diagnosis I didn't make any music either. What's more, I couldn't even listen to music. Everything sounded thin, but at the same time came in painfully hard. Music just sounded weird. It was only after six months that I slowly started to listen to music again, and to write a little. Making this record has been an important part of the processing process." The soaring sixties cloud the dreamy debut of Celsa Maxwell, as The Raveonettes, Mazzy Star, Lana Del Rey or Beach House have done before. But your mind still wanders to the parallel world of David Lynch. And just like the aforementioned references, In the Mythical Land of Sound sounds quite timeless. Even if the psychedelic title is more reminiscent of the atmosphere of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Certainly not a coincidence. "As a teenager I learned to play the guitar in order to play Beatles songs. I've been a huge Beatles fan since I was a kid: Rubber Soul is one of my all-time favorite records, along with all the albums that followed. To be honest, I don't listen to contemporary music that often. I'm more into songwriters like Bob Dylan and sixties movies, and I'm also a fan of the fashion from that era." Celsa is the daughter of Luc Crabbe and Nathalie Duyver. You may remember him as the frontman and keyboardist of Belpop gem Betty Goes Green, who went on the hort with Lou Reed in the 1990s. By the way, the blood creeps where it can't go: Celsa's older brother is Lenny Crabbe of the now disbanded Freaky Age, fifteen years ago the youngest Humo's Rock Rally finalist ever. Since apples tend not to fall far from the tree, Celsa went to study at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Brighton when she was 16, where she studied songwriting. But even though she went to an institution that produced notorious alumni like George Ezra and James Bay, she seemed to lack ambition as a teenager. "I've been writing music for about ten years now, but until a year and a half ago I never felt the need to share it with the world, as my parents or my brother emphatically did. I always kept a musical career at a safe distance. Maybe out of insecurity? I never thought anyone could have a message from my music. I still think so today. But I went overboard anyway. Because otherwise I will undoubtedly regret it. I also live with the fear that something might as well happen to my left ear. And then that's the end of the story." Becoming deaf in one ear has apparently only increased my love for music. Songs suddenly mean a lot more to me, maybe because I experience them differently. I also find music much less self-evident today than it used to be, because I have to listen better. By putting in more effort, I appreciate everything more. Ironic really: I may be partly deaf, but sometimes it seems like I'm really listening for the first time. Over the past ten years Celsa has taken her time to discover and establish a unique way of writing, producing, and recording. Favouring home-recording over a typical studio recording format she worked towards improving these skills, embracing a lo-fi sound. In the midst of this journey Celsa suffered a sudden deafness episode which left her single-sided deaf. Although the road to acceptance has been tough, a new perception of sound came with a renewed love for music and her craft. This triggered a sense of urgency to utilize her remaining hearing to its fullest ability. Coinciding with the world's isolation she embarked on an experimental quest without boundaries or rules, treading carefully not to destroy creativity by overthinking or re-recording, allowing imperfections, always searching for something real. These nine songs tell stories of grief but also of acceptance and hope, love and the agony of distance, of memories of life that changed courses, of noise, silence, and dreams of the once so familiar concept of life in stereo that might be found in this abstract place inside her mind. As The Beatles once said 'roll up for the mystery tour', roll out your magic carpets and indulge with Celsa Maxwell in the "Mythical Land of Sound". Last year, guitarist David Roback of Mazzy Star passed away. Immediately all hopes have been put away that a fifth Mazzy Star album will ever be released. Now here is Celsa Maxwell who completely revives the spirit of this American band on her debut album. Celsa Maxwell is the daughter of Luc Crabbe of Betty Goes Green and the sister of Lenny Crabbe of Freaky Age. Over the years Celsa developed her own way of songwriting, production and recording. She prefers to record everything at home where she created her own lo-fi sound. Celsa went unexpectedly unilaterally deaf some time ago, which forced her to learn to make music with a hearing aid. The result is "In The Mythical Land Of Sound", a beautiful album with nine gems. Celsa immediately captivates us with her dreamy voice (which resembles Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval). Don't expect broad arrangements, but a pure lo-fi approach with subdued drums, warm guitars and the occasional organ that colors things up a bit. These atmospheric songs don't need more, they are just finished and don't ask for frills. How Celsa could remain a secret for so long is very special. Coming up with such a great debut album with such great, dreamy tracks that grab you by the throat is unique. In any case, we look forward to hearing and viewing Celsa Maxwell on stage. The soaring sixties cloud the dreamy debut of Celsa Maxwell, as The Raveonettes, Mazzy Star, Lana Del Rey or Beach House have done before. But your mind still wanders to the parallel world of David Lynch. And just like the aforementioned references, In the Mythical Land of Sound sounds quite timeless. At the end of 2019, Celsa suddenly became unilaterally deaf, after which she spent the entire isolation period of 2020 adjusting to her new hearing situation. Through trial and error but determined, she returned to her music with this album as a result. Everything was recorded by Celsa herself, with this she opts for a lo-fi sound and embraces the imperfections and honesty that lurks beneath the surface. With her debut In the mythical land of sound, Celsa Maxwell proves that you can also make beautiful music with a limited hearing. "Music has helped me move forward." Two years ago, the unthinkable happened to Celsa Maxwell: she woke up in the morning and couldn't hear anything in her right ear. All that remained was a never-ending noise. Medical examination found no cause. "I suddenly felt like someone else," the 26-year-old singer says shyly. "The first few months were a dark, confusing period." Maxwell was born with music. Her parents Luc Crabbe and Nathalie Duyver wrote a Belpop chapter with Betty Goes Green, brother Lenny directed Freaky Age. As a teenager, she learned to play the guitar to cover Beatles songs. At sixteen she followed George Ezra and James Bay at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Brighton, where she studied songwriting. But a musical career always kept her at a distance. "As a form of rebellion I guess, but also because I didn't feel the need to share my music. I didn't believe people when they said they liked them. I always doubted whether music was for me. Until I lost my hearing. That woke me up, I definitely wanted to make a record before it was too late.' 'I always doubted whether music was for me. Until I lost my hearing. That woke me up, I definitely wanted to make a record before it was too late." Hearing loss is every musician's nightmare. For many it is due to the volume of their own music. Drum beast Keith Moon of The Who didn't mind dynamizing his drum kit, the band broke a world record in 1976 with the loudest concert ever. The prize for guitarist Pete Townshend is that he is virtually deaf today. But it doesn't always work that way. Brian Wilson as a child was struck by a lead tube on his right ear and lost his hearing. That's why his mouth skews, he started talking 'towards' his left ear. But in his autobiography I am Brian Wilson, he also tells how it made him a better musician, and how it helped him to compose his pop symphonies in 'mono'. "Musicians like Brian Wilson gave me courage," Maxwell says, nodding. 'I am a big fan of The Beach Boys and music from the sixties and seventies anyway. Wilson also produced his albums himself. The fact that he was able to make such beautiful records with one ear means that all is not lost yet.' Maxwell is just as much a little Prince: she played all the instruments on her record at home herself. She only left the mixing to her father. Didn't he have a professional studio? 'Yes, but in such a studio I get lost quickly. I prefer to keep the overview myself. Then I can experiment with my lo-fi experiments wherever I want." "Tries" is too modest. In the mythical land of sound is a beautiful record full of lingering pop songs that nestle somewhere between the mysterious landscapes of Twin Peaks and the yearning longing of Lana Del Rey. Fans of Hope Sandoval* will also remember the dreamy reverberation of Mazzy Star. 'Lost in a haze of an eternal maze', it sounds in the title song. The perfect summary of the limbo we find ourselves in today, but of course it's about Maxwell himself. "Indeed, that's a reference to the struggle with my hearing loss, the trying to accept it, and the depressing feeling that I'll be forever in that haze. In the first six months I didn't make music, not even listen to music.' Hearing nothing on one side is difficult, even in everyday life, but the noise is the heaviest mentally, says Maxwell. "I may become used to one-sided hearing after a while, sometimes even forget it. But that noise is there day and night. I had never considered that before, that people who are deaf do not necessarily hear anything anymore. The opposite is true, I can no longer experience silence.' A cochlear implant could help with this, but that costs thousands of euros and is currently not reimbursed for single-sided deaf people in Belgium. 'The step to such a hearing prosthesis is already a big one, but that money makes it extra difficult. Still, I'm considering it." Making music has changed too, says Maxwell. "If you play the right-handed guitar, you mainly listen with your right ear. That is no longer the case. When I sing, I hear my voice more in my head. The noise is also a distracting factor. Playing live will be a challenge anyway. But it is precisely this quest to deal with those limitations that has helped me move forward.'

1. Listen 3:30

2. Skin 3:38

3. Where The Windows Close 3:48

4. It's All Happening 3:53

5. In The Mythecal Land Of Sound 6:15

6. Bleeding 2:32

7. Magical Mystery Baby 3:33

8. Child Of The Universe 4:06

9. Food For My Soul 5:14