Almost blue, 2020
HD video, color, sound,  5'26'' (loop)
Variable dimensions

In Almost blue (2020) you see a landscape with no determinable beginning or end. A white smoke invades the image and there is only a moment when everything, for seconds, turns almost blue. It is at that moment that Chet Baker is heard singing “almost blue”. The quote is from the song Almost Blue (1987), an original by Elvis Costello that talks about mismatch in a metaphor that goes far beyond love. In the face of the impossibility of an encounter with what is desired, this lyrics reflect the human condition under uncertainty. And no one better than Baker, at the end of his life and when his voice has changed completely, to interpret this song. In the adapted version he only sings part of the original lyrics:

“Almost blue / Almost doing things we used to do / There’s a girl here and she’s almost you / Almost / All the things that your eyes once promised / I see in hers too / Now your eyes are red from crying / Almost blue / Flirting with this disaster became me / It named me as the fool who only aimed to be / Almost blue / Almost touching / It will almost do / There is part of me that’s always true / Always / All the things that your eyes once promised / I see in hers too / Now your eyes are red from crying / Almost you / Almost me / Almost blue.”

Throughout the entire duration of the video you can hear the delayed sound of the instrumental part of this song played on trumpet by Baker. The delay converts it into a directionless sound.


Views from Almost blue during the show J'avale la vague qui me noie le soleil de midi at Leal Rios Foundation (2021)