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Jan 23, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Shervin Lainez

Brooklyn singer/songwriter Elly Kace had already built a career as an acclaimed opera singer before releasing her debut pop album, Nothing I see means anything. As she describes, her 2021 debut was brought on by the searching and turmoil of the pandemic, but it also sparked a vibrant creative period that she is continuing this year with her sophomore album, Object Permanence. Kace’s latest effort explores even more personal territory, with Kace reflecting on grief and healing in the wake of a series of deeply painful losses within the past several years.

Today, accompanying the news of the new record, Kace has also shared the album’s lead single, “Disappear,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Disappear” is a meditation on contrast, crafting soundscapes filled with both dense darkness and dazzling light. The track opens on an elliptical smoky guitar line, burnished by rumbling jazz drumming and haunting vocal layers. Yet, that tense atmosphere shifts effortlessly into a hypnotic chamber pop reverie, shaded with sparkling keys and shimmering swells of harmonies. The track returns to the darkness once more, now cut through with bursts of trumpet from Will Miller, before ascending into a transcendent climax, offering a final celestial burst of color before Kace’s voice melts into the dreamy night.

As Kace explains, “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.”

Check out the song and video below. Object Permanence is out everywhere on March 31st via Bright Shiny Things.