A 1997 album by the
electronic music composer Paul Lansky, published by Bridge Records (BRIDGE 9076).
Track List
- Thing She Carried (7:14)
- Things She Noticed (8:15)
- Wish In The Dark (2:51)
- Things She Remembered (8:15)
- Interlude (5:07)
- Things She Read (13:22)
- Everybody Heard (6:38)
- Things She Knew (10:06)
Total Time: (61:47)
Lansky describes this work as being a "musical portrait of a woman". It is effectively a computer opera with eight movements. Five of them have lyrics, in the form of spoken texts with background ambience provided by sound effects and rhythm. Each movement is intended to add to our assumptions and perceptions of the described woman.
Things She Carried is the first movement, a list of things which the woman carries around with her. I include the text below because the name of this track matches the name of the node. The texts for other tracks can have separate nodes like ordinary tracks on an album.
TEXT:
Things she carried;
A comb,
A fine comb,
A broken comb,
three pens and two pencils,
Things she carried.
A cheap comb,
A comb with several teeth missing,
Five credit cards,
Social security card,
Library card.
Three pens and two pencils.
Change purse with one dollar and coins,
Change purse with a dollar and 25, 35, 45 cents,
Things she carried.
Keys,
Calculator,
Lipstick,
Piece of gum,
Ticket stubs,
Supermarket coupons,
Blank checks,
Three pens and two pencils,
A bottle of painkillers,
Brown leather bag,
A packet of homeopathic insomnia remedy,
Receipts,
House Keys,
Credit card case,
Emory board,
An address book,
Phone numbers,
Fax numbers,
Orange wood stick,
Rumpled Kleenex,
Car keys,
Woolen knitted gloves,
One earring,
Piece of gum,
Things she carried.
Things She Noticed is the second movement, telling us the pairings she made between different things in different situations.
Wish In The Dark is a "fake pop song that she probably liked". Interestingly, it is also an instrumental, apart from a disembodied falsetto part by the composer.
Things She Remembered is a batch of things which the woman remembers throughout her life, some important, some not so important. It reads almost like a disjointed narrative.
Interlude is just that, a soothing, repetitive melody with mild chiming sounds in the background. It gradually fades out into...
Things She Read, which starts out with quiet sounds of a busy road in the middle of the city. We are given all kinds of mystery clichés listing different events thoughout an interesting day, but does not actually give us a plot to go along with it.
Everybody Heard is a hymnlike, almost unearthly wordless song featuring moments of throbbing nonharmony which may or may not say "something about her state of mind". There's no other way to desribe it.
With a crash, we reach Things She Knew, the eigth and final movement, tells us about things the lady knew (with some more clichés), and suggests her attitude toward the world. A familiar rhythm from the first track winds through the first half of this one.