Mary Therese Hansen (1 November 1966 9 December 2002) was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n-born guitarist and singer. She joined the London-based avant-pop band

Stereolab Stereolab are an Anglo- French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a repeti ...

in 1992. As a member, Hansen recorded six studio albums from '' Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements'' (August 1993) to ''

Sound-Dust ''Sound-Dust'' is the seventh studio album by English-French rock band Stereolab. It was released on 28 August 2001 in North America by Elektra Records and on 3 September 2001 internationally by Duophonic Records. The album was produced by John ...

'' (August 2001). As a side-project, in late 1999 she formed the

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

group Schema with members of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

-based band

Hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, ...

, and they issued their debut album, ''Schema'', on 19 September 2000. On 9 December 2002, Hansen was killed after being struck by a truck while bicycling in London.

Biography

Early life

Mary Therese Hansen was born on 1 November 1966 in Maryborough,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. Her father, Brendan Percival Hansen, OAM (19221999), was a trade unionist and

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

parliamentarian; and her mother, Moira Ann Hansen (née O'Sullivan), was a light opera singer and is contributor to the Maryborough arts community. Hansen and her family were of Irish Catholic and Danish descent. Her parents were married at St Mary's Catholic Church, Maryborough in 1960. She was one of eight children, with her brothers (John, Tim and Gerry) and four sisters (Jenny, Maureen, Susie and Kate). Hansen was trained by her mother and entered

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

au. She left secondary school at age 17 and worked in a bank.

Career

By 1988, Hansen had moved to London and worked in various jobs. She soon became a backing singer with the

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

-based indie band

the Wolfhounds The Wolfhounds are an English noise pop band formed in Romford, Essex, in 1985 by Dave Callahan, Paul Clark, Andy Golding, Andy Bolton and Frank Stebbing, and originally active until 1990. The band reformed in 2005 and continues to write, reco ...

. She met guitarist Tim Gane when the Wolfhounds performed alongside his indie pop band, McCarthy. Gane formed

, in 1990 with

Lætitia Sadier Lætitia Sadier (born 6 May 1968, sometimes known as Seaya Sadier) is a French musician, best known as a founding member of the London-based avant-pop band Stereolab. In 1996, while Stereolab was still active, she formed the side project Monade. ...

(ex-McCarthy). Hansen joined Stereolab as second vocalist and guitarist in 1992. She also contributed percussion, keyboards, and occasional lead vocals. As a member of that band, Hansen recorded six studio albums from '' Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements'' (August 1993) to ''

'' (August 2001). Outside of her work with Stereolab, Hansen sang on records by Brokeback,

The High Llamas The High Llamas are an Anglo-Irish avant-pop band formed in London circa 1991. They were founded by singer-songwriter Sean O'Hagan, formerly of Microdisney, with drummer Rob Allum and ex-Microdisney bassist Jon Fell. O'Hagan has led the group s ...

, Moonshake, and

Mouse on Mars Mouse on Mars is a German electronic music duo formed in 1993 by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including IDM, dub, krautrock, breakbeat and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth an ...

. She was a record producer, keyboard player and vocalist for the London underground group Chicano. In late 1999, Hansen combined with

-formed

group

to form Schema. An eponymous maxi-EP/mini-album was released on 19 September 2000 on avant-garde

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally kn ...

imprint,

5 Rue Christine 5 Rue Christine (also known as 5RC) is a semi-defunct Olympia, Washington based independent record label, formed as a spin-off from the Kill Rock Stars label in 1997. Before its dormancy, it had become a premier label for experimental rock ba ...

. ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

s François Couture described their style as "space rock, psychedelic rock, ambient pop, and artsy avant-rock" with the feature track being "Echolalia... Curvilinear" with its "ethereal female vocals, lots of guitar noise, and a driving rhythm section".

Death

On 9 December 2002, a truck hit and killed Hansen while she was riding her bicycle in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Just before her death, she had bought a block of land in Maryborough, as she frequently spent time there with her family. Stereolab's subsequent release, '' Margerine Eclipse'' (2004) was dedicated to Hansen, with its track 'Feel and Triple' being a tribute to her. In 2004, ''Hybird'', an EP of some of Hansen's music, was released posthumously. It also featured her artwork, contained three tracks which had been released in limited editions before her death, and a final track which was finished by Stereolab's Andy Ramsay.

References

External links

Times obituary

The Guardian obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Mary 1966 births 2002 deaths Australian people of Danish descent Australian people of Irish descent Women rock singers Road incident deaths in London Cycling road incident deaths Stereolab members People from Maryborough, Queensland Australian women guitarists 20th-century Australian women singers 21st-century Australian women singers 20th-century guitarists 21st-century guitarists 20th-century women guitarists 21st-century women guitarists