A touching display of life in reverse, InAbell’s “Nightgown” video captures the emotional power and bittersweet intensity of memory.
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Hazy grays unveil a black and white frame; a woman and child in the kitchen; another woman, her replica, watching alongside like a ghost – or a dream. Piano notes falling like raindrops against a warm electro-acoustic backdrop. A touching display of life in reverse, InAbell’s “Nightgown” video captures the emotional power and bittersweet intensity of memory.
leave your kisses
on my nightgown
I’ll collect them when I wake
olive oil and lemon
will escort the morning steps I take
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the Meidan Arama-directed music video for “Nightgown,” taken from InAbell’s forthcoming debut EP Humble Wishes (produced by Roi Avital of Garden City Movement and out November 2018). Hailing from Tel Aviv, Israel, InAbell is an exciting independent voice whose music is as passionate as it is moving: Her first two singles, “Fresh Honey” and “Break Your Fall” (released this April and June, respectively), display InAbell’s multifaceted artistry as a singer/songwriter incorporating folk, electronic, pop, and many more influences.
A mellow tune, “Nightgown” smoothly blends InAbell’s range of study – employing an excitingly diverse cast of instruments together to craft a unique-sounding melody and supporting rhythmic section.
I will calculate the hour
by the warmth of
your coffee cup
by the dampness of the shower
as soon as I get up
“I wrote this shortly after I moved in with my man,” InAbell tells Atwood Magazine. “He used to leave for work before I got up and I’d wake up to find he’d gone, leaving only small clues of his morning routine. It felt strange to me to wake up to an empty house without remembering him leaving and I asked him why he didn’t kiss me goodbye. “Because you were asleep” he’d answer. I explained that the body and soul still feel love and warmth even through the haziness of sleep. Since then I get a kiss goodbye every single day.”
She continues, “The main idea behind the video was to express the feeling of a memory repeating itself in your head – an event from the past that lives inside of you. I’ve always been enchanted by the thought that so many events have taken place before my existence, and the director Meidan Arama took this thought and created a world in reverse, with a story that gradually unfolds. Everything in the story happens in reverse except for me – a silent character at the video’s opening. It was terribly confusing to shoot this video without making mistakes. We had to really concentrate and sometimes talk about the scene for 15 minutes before shooting it to ensure we got it right!”
my sleep is deep as the ocean
and my dreams are vivid bright
and even though,
I’ll know exactly when you left my night
so leave your kisses
on my nightgown
even if it seems unreal
my body lays so sleepy
but my soul can surely feel.
“Nightgown” isn’t the sort of video you watch once, in passing; a provocative story told end-to-beginning, it demands our consideration and analysis. Whereas the song itself can be thought of as requesting a form of deeper emotional connection, the video explores our emotional connection to experiences and memories, and implores us to consider how things might change upon further reflection. At the start of the video, InAbell stands there in the kitchen watching herself prepare food for what we can assume is her daughter; only as the film progresses do we understand the full extent of the burden she’s under, and what it means for her to be there, in that moment.
And even then, we’re just scratching the surface.
InAbell continues to introduce her music and artistic vision through “Nightgown,” an enchanting and challenging portrayal of memory and experience. Stream the video exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
Stream: “Nightgown” – InAbell
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? © Meidan Arama
