“One has to have endured a few decades before wanting, let alone needing, to embark on the project of recovering lost life…”  ~Christopher Hitchens

With each passing year, I find my reliance on reminiscence to be an all-encompassing endeavor.  As my yesterdays amass, I can’t help but sift through an endless sea of memories.  Having recently turned 30 further sharpens this nostalgia.  Looking back over the past decade, my roaring twenties, the sentiment is saccharine, even for the melancholy.  It seems recollection is peculiarly remedial in its own right.  But one can’t recover all that’s been lost in life until the loss has been defined, confronted, & eventually accepted.  As Carl Jung put it, a man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.  Far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Is it even possible to ever fully grasp the purpose of mere being?  I don’t know.  But I do understand the darkness; shadows cast by obstructed light.  Maybe navigating the existential conundrums of our twenty-something charades is par for the course, a right of entry to finally embark on the project of recovery.  In the same way I sift through memories, I’ve sifted through shadowlands.  & in wading through this inferno I’ve kept a record, in my case, quite literally so.

Shadowlands is the record I’ve been working on over the past 4 years.  With the guidance of producer/musician/songwriter/world-class badass Matthew Smith, we’ve crafted something I’m profoundly proud of.  For me personally, these aren’t just folk songs – they’re manifestations from a decade’s worth of life, loss, love, laments, lessons, & levity.  This collection of songs provides a tangibility that memories alone can’t attain.  My hope in sharing this record is that you might, if only for a fleeting moment, identify with something expressed, something that just might provide the slightest kindling of light amid your journey through the darkness of life’s shadowlands.

Throughout the coming months, I’ll be sharing songs from Shadowlands, complete with accompanying lyrics, interpretations, inspirations, commentary, & additional media related to each track.

Eventually I’ll get around to completing artwork, manufacturing, & distribution for the record.  Until then, thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

~Chase Fiorenza