Full Review

Elly Kace, Nothing I see means anything Review

Elly Kace is an award-winning opera singer that follows her musical muse through an endless universe of ceaseless curiosity and passion for sharing and creating music. An established and acclaimed opera singer, her career has found her performing across the world. Her music career began early; she joined the prestigious Chicago Children’s Choir at six years old. This soon led to a whirlwind musical education, summers traveling the world performing, a firm foundation in social justice causes, and even sharing the stage with artists like Bobby McFerrin, Celine Dion, and Renée Fleming. “From early on, I realized music is something that connects us beyond our bodies and circumstances,” says Kace. “You can be in the moment with any other human and share music.” It’s this ethos that propelled Kace’s decade-long journey in opera. “Opera can be so hard,” says Kace. “To do anything with it, you have to devote everything to it.” For Kace, this meant uprooting her life in Brooklyn and moving to Europe for a prestigious audition tour as an operatic soprano in early 2020. But when she was in Milan, Italy, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She first fled to Florence and then back to her New York City home. “At the time, I was feeling excited about the prospect of a European career, and then to experience such a world-changing, death-filled thing instead was really difficult,” says Kace. “It was a painful lesson that there is never any control, ever.” Back in her Brooklyn apartment, the paradigm-shifting upheaval though difficult, gave Kace the time to recenter herself. A certified JM Vinyasa yoga instructor, Kace began obsessing over her daily Sanskrit meditations as well as two phrases from the influential book A Course in Miracles: “Nothing I see means anything” and “Bless them all.” These phrases would serve as her North Star for writing a new album titled Nothing I see means anything.

Bottom Line: Nothing I see means anything finds the Brooklyn-based singer breaking free from the traditions and disciplines of the operatic canon to create a boundary-pushing and theatric pop album. The themes and lyrics find catharsis in the journey and acceptance in not having all the answers and aim to unlock both the wild and accessible parts of ourselves and the good within us. Kace recruited producers Alex Weston, Steve Wallace, Franky Rousseau, Dominic Mekky, and Rocket Jackson JR to bring the project to full fruition. “By the time I hit the limits of what I could create alone, it was clear I wanted this to have a life outside of my apartment,” says Kace. “The more I invited people into the concept, the more meaningful it became.” The result is eleven tracks that arc as a whole with a theme, while each song is still unique unto itself. “Are You Ready?” is the opening track and one of the guideposts for Kace’s sonic and thematic ambition. The song is a tapestry of vocal melodies supporting a catchy central theme and building production of synths, strings, and drums. “I” puts beautiful vocal harmonies combined with a catchy main melody with inspiring lyrics. The subtle use of percussion is fitting as the song builds to a climax and resolution. “Anything” is the album’s midpoint and serves as the meditation that results in the music shifting towards angelic vocals, Tibetan bowls, and beautifully haunting sound design. “Them” has a steady arpeggio pattern that Kace’s soprano voice warmly expresses the melody with rich backing vocals and counterpoints. Overall, Nothing I see means anything is a creative and powerful project that combines positive energy with an innovative cross of classical and pop music. Kace expresses her overall feelings about the album, “I feel like a completely different person. Even though getting this honest took a lot of suffering and self-awareness, going through that made me see reality more clearly. I’ve learned a lot, and I hope it enables others to go there too.” Enuff said; That’s the short of it!