[Vocal Layers | three layers of the same female voice | LEAD (her) = dry, close, dead-center, NO reverb, NO harmony, NO runs, plain and naked, neither electronic nor warm | HIGH LAYER (collector) = cold glassy harmonies doubled by cold synthetic sheen, precise controlled runs, poetic delivery, high and wide, cavernous reverb | BURIED LAYER (painter) = warm tender harmonies, slow languid loving runs, poetic delivery, ondes Martenot, organic, muffled beneath varnish, rising from underneath | parentheses always sung | layers bleed into each other, nothing resolves] [Intro | instrumental | dead-still gallery, prepared piano single notes dying slow, one distant hammer-strike, high cold layer drifting in alone over a lifeless analog drone] [Verse | high cold layer, refined harmonies doubled by cold synthetic sheen, precise controlled runs, poetic delivery] Je l'ai mise au mur sous verre, dans l'or ma joie, leur envie quand ils la voient chez moi [Chorus | high cold layer, precise elegant runs, synthetic sheen, beautiful and possessive] Je l'ai achetée (je l'ai achetée) elle est à moi, elle habille mon mur la signature seule vaut le prix [Instrumental | glass harmonica alone, high and cold, one piano note falling into the empty room, the analog drone lifeless beneath] [Verse | buried warm layer rising from beneath the varnish, organic, slow languid loving runs, poetic delivery dwelling on each word, ondes Martenot] Je l'ai peinte belle son visage, si rare parfait, irremplaçable trop beau pour eux [Chorus | buried warm layer, begins while the cold layer still hangs, overlapping, languid loving runs, organic and warm] J'ai dû poser la pomme (je la garde) son beau visage n'est qu'à moi personne ne le verra jamais il n'est qu'à moi [Instrumental | low bowed cello alone, warm and organic, slow as breath, ondes Martenot stirring faintly beneath] [Verse | LEAD her, dry naked voice, dead-center, no harmony, no runs, no electronics, plain] Mon visage, une pomme par-dessus seule, immobile, sans vue je ne vois que du vert je ne vois que le dos de la pomme [Chorus | LEAD her, dry and naked, no runs, breaking through both layers] Ce n'est pas moi (ce n'est pas moi) la pomme n'est pas moi et mon visage~ caché par lui [Bridge | everything thins to near silence, only cello and a single prepared-piano note, organic and warm | the buried warm layer rises and almost meets her] une fêlure dans le vernis— [whispered] quelque chose bouge… une joue… la mienne? [LEAD her, one fragile reaching vocal run as the warm layer nears, almost beautiful, then dry again] un éclat de moi?— (sous verre… sous verre…) [the cold electronic sheen closes over and freezes her back in] et le vert revient [Instrumental | the room holds its breath, sub-pulse almost inaudible, one piano note refusing to resolve, the analog drone gathering, before all three layers meet] [Climax | the two beautiful layers interweave with their runs, cold synthetic sheen against warm organic, neither yields, then her dry naked voice breaks through with no runs and all else falls away] Je l'ai achetée Je la garde Je l'ai achetée — je la garde — (je l'ai achetée — je la garde) [LEAD her, alone, dry, no runs, everything else gone] ce n'est pas moi (ce n'est pas moi) et je ne saurai jamais qui [Outro | instrumental | cello hangs unresolved, one last piano note refusing to die, the analog drone thinning, then at the edge of hearing one scrape of metal on varnish, once | silence]
