“V Is For Leading, Voice And Son” starts out with a simple, one-note bass beat until it’s eventually accompanied by glittery shimmer, then metallic scrapes like an industrial machine doing its grinding work, and then layers of elegant orchestral instrumentation. The song is dreamy and atmospheric, as well as practical and hardworking, and it juxtaposes the ethereal with the necessary and everyday.
“V Is For Leading, Voice And Son” is the first single off of Victoria, BC-based Jayne Imagination’s, a.k.a. Jayne Murray’s, new album Friends. Murray’s vocals eventually pour into the song, soothing and cooing and floating above the waves of beats as the song morphs into a full-on dance track, only to turn into a singular heartbeat at the end.
“This album was created during a time that I experienced intense stretches of imagination that were akin to dreams,” Murray describes. “When we recall our dreams and try to explain the big feelings and dream logic to our friends or family, it almost always comes off our tongues as much flatter than how we felt while dreaming. My music is an attempt to contain, focus, and reflect those powerful mindscapes.”
Murray creates music in much the same way an abstract painter might arrange shapes or wash wild brush strokes across a canvas. “I went to two art schools and walked out without a degree from either. Luckily, the education I received from both of them was beyond getting the paper for,” Murray explains. “The first art school I attended really opened my mind to imagination. I had a challenging professor, who facilitated this magic door opening and since then I haven’t stopped chasing the ‘magic.’
In fact, Murray’s stage sets often reflect her visual-arts sensibility, and they’re constructed around whatever she happens to be expressing through each individual song. For example, one song might feature a set with party hats, while for another song Murray might hand out heart-shaped arrows to the audience. Murray even owns a traffic light that she hopes to one day program so that it pulses along to the music as well as to the audience’s reactions.
While Murray makes innovative electronic music, she also proudly works as a delivery driver, bumping around town giving people their packages while simultaneously grooving out to the music of her favorite artists, as well as her own.
