areiamus

I discovered Vienna Teng through a piece of hers called Gravity, featured as the soundtrack to a well-executed if slightly melodramatic AMV of The Place Promised in Our Early Days, a film created by the current rising star of Japanese animation, Makoto Shinkai. I listened to Gravity a number of times, hearing the odd chord, a stray line of lyric, and knowing that these were really quite something I could listen to. Unfortunately, they were utterly lost in the trap of artificial intensity that so many apparently soulful songs tumble into.

Some months later, I happened upon her latest album, Dreaming Through the Noise, and commuted to it for a week straight. The style of the music is as eclectic as a genre that describes itself as ’singer-songwriter’ can be, and there are two pieces in particular that fit my mood of an evening pressed up against the glass on a crowded, silent train.

Vienna Teng - Transcontinental, 1:30 A.M.

wait
don’t let this line go slack
don’t go alone into the cold
wait
don’t give up on this yet
I know that there’s more you haven’t told
wait my love, just one more thought
wait my love, I haven’t got time in my life
to watch you drift out to sea

so please
wait
don’t let this line go slack
I want to bring you back to where I know you
wait
don’t give up on this yet
I just want you to let you let me hold you

wait my love, just one more thought
wait my love, I haven’t got time in my life
to watch you drift away
but I’ve all kinds of time if you’ll stay

I know we’re transcontinental, 1:30 a.m.
and there’s not even a wire
just a whispering in air
I know we’re transcontinental, 1:30 a.m.
but I’m here

What’s she asking for? The futile extension of an inevitably-doomed long-distance relationship? I can see the partner fielding a range of responses: faux resoluteness, circular pleading, distancing - it works with his clients but they’re rational and tend to do what they’re told if they see the logic behind it. She thinks she understands but wonders if perhaps she just hasn’t hit on the right trigger, revealing her true lack of grasp of the situation. She tells him, “I know we’re transcontinental”. His reply is whispered, she doesn’t need to hear it, she knows the sort of thing he’d say, all calm, all rational, too rational: “Yes, we are.” Her final plea: “But I’m here.”

Vienna Teng - Transcontinental, 1:30 A.M. [mp3, 5.2MiB]

I transcribed the lyrics to a piece from Ally Kerr’s weirdly-capitalised album, Calling Out to You:

Ally Kerr - The Sore Feet Song

I walked ten thousand miles, ten thousand miles to see you
And every gasp of breath I grabbed it just to find you
I climbed up every hill to get to you
I wandered ancient lands to hold just you

And every single step of the way, I paid
Every single night and day
I searched for you
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you

I stole ten thousand pounds, ten thousand pounds to see you
I robbed convenience stores ’cause I thought they’d make it easier
I lived off rats and toads and I starved for you
I fought off giant bears and I killed them too

And every single step of the way, I paid
Every single night and day
I searched for you
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you

I’m tired and I’m weak but I’m strong for you
I want to go home but my love gets me through

As I’m a horrible weeaboo, I was introduced to this piece through its inclusion as the opening song of the anime series Mushi-shi. In the series, a man wanders Japan as a mystic of sorts, helping people with problems resulting from Mushi, best described as something like pre-karyote life. The wonderful art direction in this series is done credit with long, contemplative shots of the man hiking his way through snow, across mountains or into deep forest.

Of the song itself - one could easily draw the conclusion that the artist intended to create a slightly whimsical if reasonably poetic one-man-and-a-guitar ballad, in a similar soothingly mournful vein as the Iron & Wine cover of Such Great Heights.

However, the simple pathos of I want to go home but my love gets me through reveals a different way of interpreting the piece. Consider, if you will, that the protagonist isn’t simply lamenting that he hasn’t found what he’s been seeking; instead, he’s expressing his own bewilderment at being unable to break off the fruitless pursuit.