Biography
California-based musician Chrystia Cabral crafts fantasy-like, genre-blurring experimental pop under the fittingly enchanted name Spellling. Her independently issued debut Pantheon of Me surfaced in 2017 as an atmospheric collection of dreamy, loop-driven avant-folk. The record drew widespread praise, prompting a deal with Sacred Bones Records that yielded the 2019 follow-up Mazy Fly, a richer fusion of dark synth pop, art pop, and hazy soul. Two years later came her third album The Turning Wheel, which expanded further with denser orchestration and bolder progressive structures. Songs drawn from those first three projects were then reinterpreted for the 2023 set Spellling & the Mystery School.
Cabral spent her early years in the suburbs outside Sacramento before relocating to Oakland in pursuit of greater creative liberty. She first focused on visual art until the loss of a close friend prompted her to begin composing in 2015, layering looping pedals, synths, drums, and guitars to translate imagery from her dreams. Music soon became central to her life, leading to performances across the Bay Area in unusual spaces including a chapel and a disused mortuary. Early in 2017 she issued the EP Pantheon of Me.
The supple mixture of hypnotic folk, ethereal darkwave, and abstract soul quickly attracted notice in the regional press, and the full-length version of Pantheon of Me arrived later that year, earning coverage from Pitchfork and Afropunk. After joining Sacred Bones, Spellling issued the 2018 single “Hard to Please,” which included a cover of Sparks’ “My Other Voice” on the B-side. The label then released her second album Mazy Fly in 2019, which contained both “Hard to Please” and the single “Haunted Water.” Her third album The Turning Wheel followed in 2021; self-produced and performed by thirty-one musicians, it was split into an energetic “Above” side and a darker, gothic “Below” side. Cabral and her touring band later captured how those earlier compositions had developed through repeated live performances, resulting in the 2023 release Spellling & the Mystery School.
Cabral spent her early years in the suburbs outside Sacramento before relocating to Oakland in pursuit of greater creative liberty. She first focused on visual art until the loss of a close friend prompted her to begin composing in 2015, layering looping pedals, synths, drums, and guitars to translate imagery from her dreams. Music soon became central to her life, leading to performances across the Bay Area in unusual spaces including a chapel and a disused mortuary. Early in 2017 she issued the EP Pantheon of Me.
The supple mixture of hypnotic folk, ethereal darkwave, and abstract soul quickly attracted notice in the regional press, and the full-length version of Pantheon of Me arrived later that year, earning coverage from Pitchfork and Afropunk. After joining Sacred Bones, Spellling issued the 2018 single “Hard to Please,” which included a cover of Sparks’ “My Other Voice” on the B-side. The label then released her second album Mazy Fly in 2019, which contained both “Hard to Please” and the single “Haunted Water.” Her third album The Turning Wheel followed in 2021; self-produced and performed by thirty-one musicians, it was split into an energetic “Above” side and a darker, gothic “Below” side. Cabral and her touring band later captured how those earlier compositions had developed through repeated live performances, resulting in the 2023 release Spellling & the Mystery School.
Albums
Singles
