Never does it go to show
In the throes of hope will we try to feel alive
We mind, but we're fine

Easier than rope
But no choke starts without a fire
But we try to seem fine all the time (all the time)

Tell her how you told me at home
You'd hold me close until we died while you drive
We decide to try to try

Leaving what you know makes it hard to feel the tide
This time

echoartifact.com/followup_single
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2022)

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Buy on Bandcamp.com

I can't
I can't tell
By myself

Lie
Small and frail
By myself I think I can manage it

Sigh
I should tell you
Think we would've thought of this

We don't need you
We don't see you ending up a part of this
We don't think the same of what we used to think of happiness
Intrinsic, she starts
"You think we would've thought of this"

Why I never found my way again

What would you know about trust?
What would you do to get what you want?
What would you know about truth?
When will it be enough proof to refute
What you already know?
I think you should go

Where would you be when the cut's not enough?
What then would they say about us?
Unusual how it matters so much
It's hard to predict when your god's out of touch

What would you know about blood?
What would you do if you could?
What have you done for me that I couldn't do for myself
If I didn't need your help?
Not yet

Breathe in slow
Let dark parts grow
We don't know why you care
I know why there's nothing there

I can't (do this anymore)
I can't tell (you)
By myself (I)

Lie (to me again)
Small and frail (I am)
By myself I (don't) think I can manage it

Sigh (again, to me again)
I should tell you
Think we would've thought of this (before we fell down)

We don't need you
We don't see you ending up a part of this
We don't think the same of what we used to think of happiness
Intrinsic, she starts
"You think we would've thought of this"

echoartifact.com/followup_single
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2021/2022)

Followup

This time I won't fall for this
These short step relationships
Star-studded pools I can't resist
But too deep to swim against this time

This time I'll pretend that my will contends
Twist my tongue until it rips
Bright blue apocalypse
There is no innocence

This time
This tide
In rhyme
This time
This time
This time

echoartifact.com/thebells_single
echoartifact.com | traxlerstudios.com

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Wake up
Last night I dreamed...
Break up - I'll find new strings
Wake up
Last night I dreamed I need you
But you came too sure
          I know I'm not sure
... too sure

Breakpoint. Listen and repeat.
If you want it long enough it’ll become what you need.
Breakpoint. I’ll bring you up to speed.
After every rainbow comes the rot and the disease.

Everything up until now has a filter.
Everything up until now has been tilted, shifted
Easy up: get lifted; drift with it; pick gifted.
Paint a picture of transition;
Rediscover new beginnings.
But if you never “act now” include ‘oblivious indecisions’

Now, if we listen to tradition
Not every lesson needs invention.
If you are what drives your illness
Separate. A new division.

Where do we go when we go inside?
Somewhere safe from the landslide?
Somewhere better than your own head
“Nothing but old ghosts and broken parts”, she said.
What do we know about letting go?
Nothing but short steps in an undertow.
Don’t lose sleep. Take it slow.

What do you think it would take to get you through?
What will it take to make you new?
If you get there first, save seats for two
I’m not the one. They’re both for you.

Breakpoint. Listen and believe.
If you need it long enough it’ll consume what you bleed.
Breakpoint. I’ll bring you to release.
It’s the rainbow that brings all the rot; the disease.

Everything up until now is a flicker.
Everything up and then “how” doesn’t fit her
Doesn’t get her. “Stay down” doesn’t fit her
Doesn’t shift her; stay with her

Paint a picture of admission; rediscover intuition
But if you never “act now” don’t expect her to resist her resistors

Now, if we listen to tradition
Not every lesson needs revision.
If you are what drives your illness
Separate. Create derision.

Where do we go when we go inside?
Somewhere safe from the landslide?
Somewhere better than your own head
“Nothing but old ghosts and broken parts”, she said.
What do we know about letting go?
Nothing but short steps in an undertow.
Don’t lose sleep. Take it slow.

echoartifact.com/thebells_single
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2023)

The Bells

From the original opera, CPU
echoartifact.com/cpu_opera

As I lie in wait the screen will load.
Why try perpetuate the episode?
I know just how far this will go.
Watch me chase her down a rabbit hole.

She stays folding constant memory
Like tape, all that’s left is shimmering.
Losing and over-clocking all that we
Won’t leave now witnessing through history.

Just numbers in the cloud
No signal to the ground

I wait calculating entropy (while)
She slips into something misery.
We are so far along the plot erodes.
Witness all at once the overload.

Just numbers in the cloud
No reason to be found
Six chambers in the round
Let’s find our way down

As she tries to stop the sound

I stay – partition partial memory
Someday duplicate my apathy.
She states “You only want what you can see”
I’ll create a better virus to release.

Stage 1 – dissolve the casing carefully
Stage 2 – deploy the virus properly
Stage 3 – This strain of poison digital
Now breathe – The devastation: critical

It shakes pixelating visually.
We break – electronic shattering.
Reshape the virus out of misery.
She will reboot a better part of me.

Just numbers in the cloud
No reason to be found
Six chambers in the round
Let’s find our way down.

We are. We are all a part of this. (We are, we are.)

We all, we all fall apart at this. (We are, we are.)

We all. We all had a part in this. (We are, we are.)

We are. We are all a part of this. (We are, we are.)

Like children in the crowd
Left screaming this aloud
Six chambers in the ground
We’ve found our way…

She fakes replicating part of me.
Retake deploy the virus constantly.
We make a first-world catastrophe.

She breaks self-importing gravity.
Create self-revolving memory.
We are all that’s left in front of me.
We drown celebrating gravity.

Recorded at Traxler Studios (2016)

CPU (EP)

CPU (Overture)

From the original opera, CPU
echoartifact.com/cpu_opera

There’s just one thing in my mind,
Do you love me all the time?
And I’m not sure why I need to know,
I just do

Do you? Do you love me girl?
I think you do

As do all things heal in time,
Do you trust me? Will we survive?
And I’m not sure if I can stand to know
When we’re through

Do you? Do you love me girl?
I think you do

As I told you outside,
Could you love me through this demise?
The only one thing that I seem to know is
I love you

Do you? Do you love me girl?
I think you do

Recorded at Traxler Studios (2016)

Do You

Do You (02)

From the original opera, CPU
echoartifact.com/cpu_opera

I see your name written down
In a word, alone
I see no need to be found
In this world alone

And I won’t find myself in time
Tell me something I don’t already know

Our last story will be surrender
Deny everything and leave her

Out of my mind (nothing)

I, with this clock ticking down,
Create a world of tones
I’ll end this automated sound
And we’ll wash ashore

And we won’t mind this gap in time
Feel me disappear. It’s already done.

This task the only space between us
Defines now our only weakness

I am alive (nothing)
Out of my mind (nothing changes me)

I found you where I found myself

Out of my mind

I’ll bring this game crashing down
To a pile of stones
Raining destruction abound
Only skin and bones

And if we find ourselves in time
We’ll abandon hope. We’re never getting home.

Sound warnings defeat her
It notes everything and remembers

I found you where I found myself
I found you where we last exhaled
At least she’ll know I died trying

I found you where I found my -

I found you where I found myself
I found you where we last exhaled
I found you where we’re drowning
At least she’ll know I died fighting

Out of my mind (nothing changes me)

Recorded at Traxler Studios (2016)

Out of My Mind

Out Of My Mind (04)

Until We Met

echoartifact.com/partials
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2018)

Partials

Until We Met

I don’t feel like sleeping anymore
Maybe now and then
Even being numb can be a chore
When you’re stepped on again

I don’t get to see you anymore
I just live to move myself around around again
How I’d like to meet you furthermore
How cordial we’d pretend

Why I fail to see the point of waking up to you
While I find myself in someone else’s shoes

Bring me back a season from before
A cold and subtle wind
Leaving all our reasons at the door
We’re keeping score but no one playing ever wins

Why I fail to see the point of waking up to you
While I find myself in someone else’s shoes

I am not myself
Who could I be
If not someone else

I don’t feel like sinking anymore
February silences are setting in
Pick apart my ego ’til it’s sore
But then again, where are all my fucking friends?

Why I fail to see the point of waking up to you
While I find myself in someone else’s shoes
(waiting here for you)

I won't find my way out
I don't mind these breakdowns
(I think about the silence of danger)
I won't let you in now
I'll find my own way down
(I think I am becoming a stranger)

echoartifact.com/lefttolose
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2019)

Left To Lose

I think I am becoming a stranger

Not that long ago
We stood face to face
Indecision shows
The ways that we have changed

Born again to show
That we’ve evolved away
Bleeding head to toe
But we keep secrets safe

One last round to go
And then we’re far away
No one has to know
‘Cuz we keep secrets safe

Like nothing matters

By now I know, knocked down, I’m not getting up
Ready to bleed for this but I’m too deep cut
The longer I’m down the more I sink to oblivion
You have no idea what this will become

No one left to know
No one left to say
Dig deep down below
To keep this secret safe

Buried here alone
With all of our mistakes
Never really known
That we were making graves

All that’s left to show
Is violently erased
Fear of letting go
Will keep me in this place
...keep me in my place

(I’m watching all my dreams turn circles)
(Waiting for a great new purpose)

Like something matters

By now I know, knocked down, I’m not getting up
Ready to bleed through this but I’m too deep cut
The longer I’m down the more I sink to oblivion
You have no idea what this has become

Finally alone
Desperate and decayed
Breaking sticks and bones
To keep this story straight

(Weigh me down
I know why
You won’t ask me now
I know why
You can’t weigh me down
Ask me why)

By now I’m done, knocked out, I’m never getting up
Already bleeding out and I’ve had enough
The longer I’m down the more I sink to oblivion
You have no idea but this has begun

Finding out that hope
Is frequently delayed
Never letting go
‘Cuz we keep secrets safe

What’s your price for keeping secrets?

echoartifact.com/lefttolose
Recorded at Traxler Studios (2019)

Ask Me

Echo Artifact is Al Cerulo and Jude Traxler; multi-instrumentalists live-looping original songs within a narrative structure.