Air’s music always conjured dreams and images. As a side project by the name of City Reading (Tre Storie Western), they composed the musical background for stories by Alessandro Baricco.
This short story is based on the last track of 10′000 Hz Legend, named Caramel Prisoner. It is, of course, best read while listening to the music. Alone. At night.
An electronic ghost is dying. His gleam flickers, leaving his translucent body pulsing to the rhythm of his slow breathing. Leaning motionless against the window, he stares at the night with eyes wide open, dark globes occasionally lit by the flame of the candle he holds in his hands.
Choirs of dead voices are heard all around, echoing in the room like a second funeral, whispering to announce the near end. A synthetic organ fills the space with deep basses and blurry notes playing an unknown melody.
Weary, the ghost peers through the window, gazing at the beauty of the darkness. The night has enveloped the city and the rain washes the sky and the tall buildings. Heavy, black clouds hang above the scene, sucking the tenuous light escaping from the ground. And through the clouds the moon shines weakly, irradiating them with its gloomy brightness.
In the buildings, behind the windows, invisible shadows switch lights on and off, forming a hypnotic dance of squares blinking on the walls of the city. Down below, the ghost sees lonely cars chasing their own shadow on the wet asphalt and along the white dashed lines, their headlights casting bleary moving halos in the dark streets.
A tear runs down his face and dies dry on his cheek. He had not been told that he would feel so alone, that he would have to wait for the moment to come…
At last, the light of the candle wears off as a dark veil sweeps through the room, instantly chilling the air and killing the music. The electronic ghost looks up, smiles. In a swirl of static electricity, his soul is slowly scratched off of his body, released from the material bond that held it down there, freed forever.