I'm looking at the CD booklet from And She Closed Her Eyes. When I first found out about Stina, her first album was no longer being sold in the U.S.A. so I ended up buying Her Eyes...

She has short dark hair and a big forehead. The sleeve photo of her shows her standing in front of an old wooden warehouse or something. She is wearing a high-collared blue coat that looks like a spacesuit. She has her eyes closed and one hand held up to her temple, like she is receiving a telepathic message. The CD booklet, which contains all of her lyrics (she sings in English), shows many enigmatic pictures of her. Some are out of focus, some are from funny angles. None of them show her with her eyes open, except for the last one, a tiny full-figure shot on the back cover. She's wearing the same blue coat and a little blue skirt. Blue socks bunched down around her ankles; white high-top sneakers. The picture is so small you're not sure if her eyes are open or not. She is holding both hands up to her head, as if she was the model for Munch's "The Scream". She is not screaming.

Some time later, I found Memories of a Color in a second-hand CD shop. There she is on the front cover, a tiny, skinny figure in silhouette, standing in icy blue twilight. She is standing where windswept rocks meet the cold north seas, holding herself, bare legs pressed tightly together. She looks like a little trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Melancholy that someone left at the shore before throwing herself in the water.

The booklet for Memories shows a very sophisticated young lady in three black and white photographs. An effort, no doubt, to add some dark, jazzy worldiness to her tender years. Her eyes and lips are clearly defined with glamour photo makeup, but she looks a little detached from what's going on. Which is the real Stina, the self-assured woman in these photographs, or the lone, blurred figure on the cover?