Maja Lena – Queen City Sounds and Art

Maja Lena’s experimental pop song “Portal” with its pulse of minimal percussion as rhythm track and melodic drone leading into the songwriter’s almost sing-song-y vocals has an immediate accessibility in spite of its unconventional, more intuitive structure and pacing. Its poetic lines do not follow any standard form of verse and its more avant-garde leanings fit well the beautifully symbolic language and imagery. The music video and its enigmatic footage of dark roads at night, brightly lit vegetation against a dark backdrop and mysterious figures whose faces are hidden by shadow somehow makes the music make more sense in a concrete way in the manner with which Kate Bush’s more structuralist film format videos and the post-modern aesthetic of repeated images and themes reinforcing and evolving meaning with every iteration did for some of her own music. The playful woodwind sounds in this song and Lena’s wide ranging vocals in counterpoint with each other might be compared favorable as well with Cate Le Bon’s wonderfully alien pop songcraft. You hear it and you know that you’re in for a musical ride into realms that will expand one’s emotional knowledge and gain a language for articulating aspects of existence that elude standard use of language. Lena speaks to the way our imagination though a wonderful tool and at the core of our existence and cognitive orientation can run away with us and how we can be compelled by unconscious influences to act in unpredictable ways that are perhaps best understood through imaginative constructs like mythology. When Lena sings about “answering to Pluto,” “answering through fire” and “answering through desire” maybe it’s intended in a way to be literal but Pluto can symbolize the shadow side of ourselves and fire and desire the passions and inspirations that can drive us. But however one interprets Maja Lena’s richly diverse set of symbols as employed in the song, the mysterious allure of “Portal” suggests a transformation in stepping through whether as a life changing decision, choosing to take a path of possible peril but also reward or into the world of another with its personally crafted vision guiding the experience. Watch the video for “Portal” on YouTube, follow Maja Lena at the links below and perhaps give a listen to the rest of the new album Pluto which released on December 2, 2022.

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The lush background synth swells, the exquisitely accented bass line and Maja Lena’s warmly soaring vocals on “No More Flowers” itself sounds like a pagan cognate of something Rubblebucket might someday do. But in the context of the music video filmed, edited and costumed by Martha Webb (who also designed the flag) with choreography by Anders Duckworth and a sword provided by Bob Watson (look out for cameos from Apollo the Goat) it’s like a the mystical journey of a Viking priestess warrior as she carries out the proper ceremonial exercises and gestures to attain the next stage of her development and taking on more aspects of her power and prestige. Which could be a metaphor for the song which poetically mythologizes the ways in which people relate to one another and the barriers we put up so that people can’t get too close unless we want them to and the oblique ways in which we drift apart. It’s a song that delves into a realm of human interaction not often written about with that level of insight and creative imagery of not offering extravagant gestures of good will toward people we don’t want in our lives anymore. Watch the video for “No More Flowers” on YouTube, look out for the full album out on Chiverin likely later in 2022 and follow Maja Lena at the links below.