fitzrovia: reverie - live in paris

We are greeted with softly played piano notes wandering upwards like the fragile moon outside the window. This is a night song, or a day song that awaits the night, and after the playful, almost improvised-sounding hello, we are introduced to the most gently played 6/8 chords a piano can create, wherefore the immersive width of this well-made stereo recording shines bright into our ears like the evening sun.

Rhythmically, we feel like moving forward, moving through the middle of a busy crowd, unnoticed. When fitzrovia starts singing the lines of the first verse, it happens so naturally that for a moment it seems like we can’t even separate her from the accompanying instrument as she is blending into it. Her first words indicate a sense of self-doubt and set the mood for the rest of the composition: “Steady December / Made me a pretender”.

The song starts to fully bloom in the chorus, when fitzrovia diagnoses: “Maybe I’m stuck in a reverie”. Her calming performance makes us understand, but it also functions as a reassurance for anyone who might find themselves stuck, unable to escape daydreaming, and doubting its rightness. fitzrovia’s lyrics are a poetic meditation on the microcosm in one’s head, and the fear of losing yourself in it – at the very same time, it embodies a shy celebration of mentioned microcosm; the feeling of security that comes with going back to a familiar place, not having to face so-called normality for some time. Her piano-playing resembles the sensibility of Debussy’s 'Rêverie', while her vocal performance ranges from early shyness to a more brave storytelling once we enter the second verse and the following chorus.

Listening all the way through her composition pays off, as fitzrovia seems to open up more the longer we listen to her words, transforming the song into a late-night conversation with someone we just got closer to. 'reverie' is an intimate confession, and as the last piano notes decay, it ultimately leaves us with the feeling of having made a friend.