Jane Penny’s spellbinding voice is often the centerpiece of TOPS’ music. Today, she’s announcing her debut solo EP Surfacing. The lead single “Messages” is out today with a video directed by Otium.

“It’s a pop song about getting notifications from everyone except the one person you want to hear from, which was happening to me at the time,” Penny said in a statement. “The opening sample — ‘there is a message for you’ is a strange message that the credit card machines in Montreal cabs make.”

The music video was inspired by Maya Deren’s 1943 film Meshes Of The Afternoon. “The concept came from a meditation on the journey which led me to have a solo project, a journey which involved searching for myself, striving for some true essence, and realizing that this will naturally happen and isn’t something I need to force,” she explained.

Surfacing was written, produced, and recorded by Penny between Berlin and Montreal. She began working on the EP after TOPS’ European tour in March 2020; she and Adam Byczkowski (who makes music as Better Person), who was her partner at the time, were ill with long COVID. Surfacing crystallized as Penny served as a caretaker for Byczkowski, who had become bed-ridden.

Watch the “Messages” video below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Darkness Can Wait For A Night”
02 “Messages”
03 “Wear You Out”
04 “Stream”
05 “Artificial Genuine”
06 “Beautiful Ordinary”
07 “Accelerate Slowly”

Surfacing is out 4/5 on Luminelle.