[old record crackle] [SAMPLED SCIENCE NARRATOR] A signal cannot determine whether a receiver is present. [needle skip] receiver is present present present [low two-step pulse enters] [Movement I] slowly slipping away something sets adrift before anybody admits it's leaving your voice used to get through now there's something between here and there not distance exactly something with no name and excellent reception I keep throwing words at it hoping one gets past [SAMPLED SOUL GROUP] still reaching you... [chopped] reaching reaching you I ask myself backward take one memory pull it apart look for the exact second closeness started becoming history maybe there wasn't one maybe that's the trick things don't always break sometimes they just get farther apart while you're still holding them [waterphone bends upward] [Refrain] unknown receptor I don't know where this goes I send it anyway unknown receptor if you're nowhere that I know I send it anyway [SAMPLE — SCIENCE NARRATOR, chopped] signal— receiver— distance— signal— [Movement II] I hope whatever world you're living in now has windows I hope something there lets you look back not because I need proof just because sometimes I still picture your face and it feels ridiculous that memory can make somebody look closer than a room [ANSWERING-MACHINE SAMPLE] hello? ... you there? [beat drops out] I don't answer it [kalimba starts irregularly] I know what happens when you answer ghosts sometimes they learn your schedule [beat returns] heart keeping time to something I can't hear anymore chain stretching miles away still somehow attached I crawl another inch toward whatever comes next happy just to have known you angry that knowing you had an ending [SAMPLED SOUL GROUP] still reaching you... [Movement III — samples begin phase-shifting] air I breathe room I'm in one hand empty other hand remembering what warmth felt like everybody says don't lose touch like touch is something you decide to keep like the world doesn't come through cutting wires while you're sleeping [layered whispers, all DASnot texture] keep keep keep keep I said too much then not enough then the book kept writing itself another chapter where fantasy tries turning real another scar trying to explain what happened anger at the whole world because one person isn't here [Refrain — wider] unknown receptor I don't know where this goes I send it anyway unknown receptor maybe love is just a signal that refuses to ask permission [Granular Freeze] [SAMPLED SCIENCE NARRATOR] A signal— [freeze] A signal— [freeze] A— [silence] [Movement IV — almost beatless] what if nobody's listening? what if that's not the important part? maybe sending changes the sender maybe speaking your name keeps one room from going completely dark maybe looking up isn't believing you're looking down maybe it's admitting I still don't know where else to look [SOUL SAMPLE — clean for first time] still reaching you [DASnot] yeah [Final Movement] unknown receptor somewhere past every address I know no reply required no proof no sign no miracle I remember enough [SCIENCE SAMPLE] Transmission continues until— [tape chews] [DASnot] until what? [long pause] [very distant soul sample] ...reaching you... [DASnot] I know it's bright [radio spectrum noise] I love you [tape stops]
