Mary Hansen, 1966-2002

When my wife wants me to buck up and find the good in a bad situation, she flashes a toothy smile, adopts an Australian accent, and says, “There’s lovely noodles on the balcony.” That’s what Mary Hansen of Stereolab said to me in 1996 when my band showed up for our first-ever gig in London and found we were playing a goddamn restaurant. On the afternoon of December 9, Hansen was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding her bicycle on City Road in London. She was 36. The second female voice in Stereolab, Hansen joined in 1992 and added her churchy falsetto to 11 albums, including the recent ABC Music: The Radio One Sessions. Hansen was responsible for carrying out much of Stereolab’s central sonic strategy: the la-la-la’s and chew-bac-ca’s that float above so many songs. She appeared on recordings by Mouse on Mars, Tortoise, High Llamas, and Brokeback, and released a solo 7-inch as the Horizontalist. In an almost unbearable synchronicity, her face appeared on an album for the first time the day after her death˜on the cover of Common’s Electric Circus. There, touching Common’s bald head at 11 o’clock, is Head #39: Mary Hansen, pictured with her eyes closed.

    Hansen was the bubble in Stereolab’s soda, the one who smiled onstage, the one who made a long, boring day in the studio feel giddy and short. In a world of monosyllabic “geniuses” and haughty record geeks, Hansen was a hilarious, lightening presence. We know the world is going to hell in handbasket,
and even the good bits feel unlovely right now. Mary came from, and will be buried in, Maryborough, Queensland, home of the Maryborough Sugar Museum and the Mary River.

Sasha Frere-Jones