Jane Siberry's The Walking, released in 1987, is a cinematic progressive pop album. Its setting is liminal space, an autumn between leaving a relationship and arriving elsewhere. The soundscapes lead us into our musical narrator's experience, grounded in the intimacy of Jane's poetry and voice. There are no conclusions but explorations. Seeking solace in parallels in The White Tent the Raft: and the tears streaming from the mind's eye / streaming back beyond the white sheets that flap and fly. Retelling a story over and over, in search of congruence, in The Lobby: and they say "this is your darkest hour" / this is my finest moment. In Ingrid and the Footman, it is reframing identity; our narrator creates a character, to fit the new story developing in her wake, and casts herself in the musical chorus rather than the lead. There is the chill of feeling incapable of taking the next decisive step in Lena is a White Table: well, maybe she should go to school / no, no. she's a table / Lena's a white table. The Bird in the Gravel offers eventual surrender: I love the bare branches / I love the healing bells / the bareness in the last sun /the greyness and the gold.

Musicians Jane Siberry - vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards, backing vocals, bells Al Cross - drums, percussion, tambourine, backing vocals Anne Bourne - piano, organ, keyboards, backing vocals John Switzer - bass, tambourine, percussion, backing vocals Ken Myhr - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, backing vocals

Additional Musicians Rob Yale - keyboards Wendell Ferguson - electric guitar David MacVittie - backing vocals Bob Blumer - backing vocals Rebecca Jenkins - backing vocals Gina Stepaniuk - backing vocals Cherie Camp - backing vocals Sarah McElcheran - trumpet Steven Donald - trombone