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Portrait Imperfect

by Chase Elodia

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1.
Four Wide 04:14
"Four wide They stand An endless grid Of recollection Months fly With a flick My thumb is now a captain One tap And impressions Turn bright With precision Each box Is a path To a past Unexamined What do I say, now? Confronted with you, Who was once me Through cracks I see A life appear Do I still hold her dreams? Gripped close In a pinch Each finger Now a lever Flung out In a haste I start to uncover This scene Once vague Now alive With color And with each face holding still I piece It together What do I say, now? Confronted with you, Who was once me Through cracks I see A life appear Do I still hold The dreaming comes unwound You pass before me so quickly All 7,391 of you Conjured in an instant And held on to The spotless decay The strange embrace Heavy for a day Then gone away Away"
2.
You (Water) 05:33
"I look directly at you And see myself So distorted I plunge myself below And try to hold you But you slip away Through my soaked hands Each wrinkle A symptom of a dive lasts too long You touch me everywhere, Everywhere I go You envelop me In a light shade of blue: Multi-hued complexity I see the world In a blurry haze Until suddenly, Suddenly I come up to grasp For air In the blissful morning When my skin was sun-kissed I left my old worries Along the coastline Everything I wanted Everything I needed Was below I’m lost within your current Swept up from below I push away, but you swallow me Completely I drown Addicted to forgetting myself And so I fall in with your touch Your touch is better than any sleep"
3.
readreceipt 04:26
"I know you Know I know You know I Know you know I know you Know I know Do you know? I know you Know I know You know I Know you know I know you Know I know Do you know? I know you Know I know You know I Know you know I know you Know I know Do you know? I know you Know I know You know I Know you know I know you Know I know Do you know? Will you say so? What do you still withhold? Will you say so? What do you still withhold? Wait for you I know you know, Wait for you Will you say so? What do you still withhold? Will you say so? What do you still withhold? Double Check, Double Check Double Check, Double Check I know you know, Double Check, Double Check Double Check, Double Check I know you know Double Check, Double Check Double Check, Double Check Double Check, Double Check Double Check, Double Check Check I know you know I Double Check, Double Check Double I know you know I Double Check, I Double Check Double Check Double I double check I double check I double check You know I double check Double Check Double Check I know you know I know Check Check, Double Check I know you know, You know I Check I Double Check You know I Double Check Double Check, Double Double Check I Double Check I Double Check You know I Double Check Double Check I Double Check I Double Double Check I Double Check I Double Double I I Double Check Double Double Check I Double Check I, I Double Check You Know I Double Check Wait For You I know you know"
4.
Everywhere 04:30
I am everywhere now In a placeless modernity The details of my life Pass into the fold, mere scenery One of hundreds In the queue You hold me Just for a second Just long enough to ask Just long enough to ask Where, where have I gone? You are everywhere now In an endless world of make-believe The triumphs of your life Take center stage, the pageantry One of hundreds In the queue You hold me Just for a second Just long enough to ask Just long enough to ask Where, where have I gone away? Lost to the ether The embers fade You hold me Just for a second Just long enough to ask Just long enough to ask Where, where have I gone?
5.
"Saw your life Pass by four times In words and letters, In pictures and slides These casual ties These victims of time I tend to them, but still they subside And do I know This archive holds An imperfect recollection? Every piece changes your complexion Thought I knew your every detail Now I see a facade that’s revealed To be imbued with fictions The vestiges of protecting you Seeing you across every page Your whole body now split and arranged But my memory is a fickle thing It conjures what it wants to remain And don’t I know This archive holds An imperfect recollection? Every piece changes your complexion Thought I knew your every detail Now I see a facade that’s revealed To be imbued with fictions The vestiges of protecting you Fleeting then, but now always still Intangible, but now implacable I prefer you as an abstract design Not concretized between discrete lines And will I know This archive holds An imperfect recollection? Every piece changes your complexion Thought I knew your every detail Now I see a facade that’s revealed To be imbued with fictions The vestiges of protecting you"
6.
7.
Better Work 06:08
"Clenched within your grip I surrender all of myself to you, Who taught me to believe In the contingencies of salvation Show him, once more Swaying back and forth in your arms I lose my sense of time This evanescent glow Will fade into nothing We will dance into the dark With a light swing He wants to see your work He wants to see Show him, once more He needs more, Go, show him again Step by step by step I confront this, the ticking clock of my mortality I work to resist it, But it knocks and knocks and knocks So persistent Show him, once more He needs more, more, more More, more, more When I was a child I would play in empty rooms Humming a tune That no one would ever know It was mine alone Unencumbered by the need For a larger meaning To provide a reckoning, An accounting Of reasons why Last chance, show him Now"
8.
How to account For the starts and stops, The turns and indecisions? A pulse that ticks Will keep the time But what about a larger conclusion? Here, in my palm, A possible solution? Small as a tail, Curled into a “C” It gently hugs my left wrist And crafted in a foreign place It’s now become a constant companion Here, in my palm, A tiny substitution Like a parent who knows better It follows me: Silent keeper, silent keeper of progress And step by step, it counts Where to begin To address the score, To clear up the confusion? With every step Now in the count Will I begin to trust resolutions? Here, in my palm, A fictitious precision Like a parent who knows better It follows me: Silent keeper, omniscient seeker Silent keeper, omniscient seeker of progress And step by step, it counts How to account For the starts and stops, The turns and indecisions? A pulse that ticks Will keep the time But what about a larger conclusion?

about

Inspired by readings of media theorists throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Portrait Imperfect is the debut recording from Chase Elodia’s new ensemble. Joined by bandmates Claire Dickson on vocals, Theo Walentiny on pianos and keyboards, and Tyrone Allen on Bass, Elodia uses the album as a space to reflect on how online ecosystems have transfigured the way we relate to ourselves and one another. The album parses the intricacies and complexities of digital life across eight diverse tracks, three of which features Morgan Guerin on EWI. The album is notable for the way it foregrounds the voice, with Elodia’s perceptive lyric-writing taking center stage on most tracks.

“I love the drums, and most of my first musical heroes were drummers. My time studying with Billy Hart was foundational to how I think about every aspect of my creative practice. But I also have a deep and abiding love for language, and studied English literature in college in addition to music. These days I find myself perhaps just as inspired by the writings of Fernando Pessoa, Jane Hirschfield, and Susan Sontag as I do by the drumming of Terri Lyne Carrington, John Hollenbeck, and Deantoni Parks.”

These literary influences are apparent throughout the album, as the songs discuss ideas such as the “spotless decay” of digital archives, the “placeless modernity and pageantry” of social networking, and the “contingencies of salvation” that are woven into our productivity-obsessed culture. Dickson’s voice, with its airy twinge, beautifully sounds out Elodia’s ruminations throughout the affair, from the hypnotic machinations of “readreceipt” to the plaintive questions of “Silent Keeper.”

“I’m continually asking questions about the affordances of digital technologies – both in regard to how we live our lives, but also in thinking about the role of music and art in our
hyper-connected moment," says Elodia. "In what ways do these technologies propagate an increasingly avaricious and materialist cultural disposition? And how, as musicians and artists, might we be
able to both attend to and challenge that way of relating to the world?”

credits

released May 13, 2022

Chase Elodia – Drums, Compositions
Claire Dickson – Voice
Morgan Guerin – EWI (Tracks 5, 6, & 7)
Theo Walentiny – Piano and Keyboards
Tyrone Allen – Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Synth Bass

Recorded June 21 & 22, 2021 at the Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY

Recording Engineer: Aaron Nevezie
Mixed and Mastered by Lee Meadvin

Special thanks to:

Claire, Morgan, Theo, and Tyrone – for bringing the music to life so beautifully

Fabian – for believing in our music and for running this incredible label

The Boulder County Arts Alliance and Pathways to Jazz for their support of this project.

Aaron Nevezie and Lee Meadvin – for their impeccable attention to sound and detail

Imola Vida-Veres, Joslyn Sarshad, Kathryn Sherman, and Jessica Struch – for their feedback and for singing early versions of these songs

My family and friends – for their love and encouragement

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about

Chase Elodia Brooklyn, New York

Chase Elodia is a composer and drummer based in Brooklyn, New York. His music takes cues from media theorists, singer- songwriters, jazz composers, and poets to ask questions about how we relate to both ourselves and one another in our increasingly digitized, secularized cultural moment. His new album, Portrait Imperfect, will be released on Biophilia Records in May 2022.

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