[Cover photo credit to Shervin Lainez]
Elly Kace, an internationally known opera singer, has shared details of her forthcoming album Object Permanence, which is due for release on March 31, 2023 via Bright Shiny Things.
In 2021, Kace explored new sides of herself with her debut album Nothing I see means anything that explored her introspective and danceable side. The new album, however, addresses grief and turning it into something “healing and stunning”, as we see in lead single “Disappear,” out now.
The new track features trumpet playing by Will Miller and jazz drumming from Colin Croom.
Speaking on the song’s origins and meaning, Elly Kace recalls:
Sometimes, when I meditate, my vision shifts and people melt into black and gold colors in my sight. “Disappear” is my attempt to describe that experience with sound. After I sketched this one out, I knew I needed to connect with Alex Weston and Franky Rousseau to add the right flesh to my ideas. We really wanted to keep a stark contrast between conscious reality – mostly heard in the verses – and the more meditative space where the melting of colors was happening, which is what you hear in the choruses.
The more tactile parts of the song have clear instrumental lines and very specific rhythmic elements, and the choruses are purposefully melty in a way where the listener is expected to surrender some control and float with us a bit. When I am meditating, one part of my consciousness is very practical – saying “this doesn’t mean anything,” “I can’t know shit about shit,” “maybe it’s my imagination,” etc., and the other part of my consciousness is completely immersed in believing in the magic of what my eyes are experiencing.
While Kace’s learned a lot about her own songwriting and production, she knew she needed to let more collaborators in to fill in the gaps for this album. Collaborators include co-producers like Ziyad Asrar, who mixed the whole LP, William Brittelle, Franky Rousseau, Dominic Mekky, Steve Wallace, and Alex Weston as well as guest musicians Erika Dohi, Colin Croom, and Will Miller.
She adds:
That just made it grow into something really community based as well, which I thought was, was a really nice thing, considering it’s about grief.
