Mindy Meng Wang: An Improvisation Through Time and Space 穿越时光的即兴

- The oldest gu zheng they've found has been dated to the Warring States Period, about 500BC. It's the origin point for other plucked zither style instruments like the Sundanese kacapi, Korean ajaeng, Japanese koto, each one so popular that they have spawned their own idiomatic styles and, frequently, cheesy synthesiser presets. So I guess you could say that Mindy Meng Wang is playing in a field that's older than most other instruments put together. That's a lot of history to take on.

Not that she's a straight traditionalist either. She studied Western musicology in London before making the move to Oz and is upfront about wanting to connect the past to her present, racking up collabs with acts like Regurgitator and Gorillaz. This makes the label Music in Exile a pretty perfect home for this EP: it's the same stable that's brought us crowd pleaser favourites like Gordon Koang, or Ausecuma Beats.

An Improvisation Through Time & Space is deeply meditative, yet still pops with brightly energetic passages, vibrant playing, particularly in mid-EP cut Thoughts in the Rain. The kinetic cascading water translated into shimmering descending features and rasgueado splashes of chords. Dimensions in a Strange Land brings us a bit further forward, with some heavily processed metallic drone tones holding up a sparse lower register melody. Overall it’s a contemplative and poised soundscape, reveling in quiet moments and delicate textures, suspense and resolution… By turns achingly beautiful and stunningly lucid, this is a release that makes everything else disappear for twenty-three minutes..

Although An Improvisation Through Time & Space hangs in a mostly traditional space, it’s far from a comprehensive demonstration of what this artist can do.. if anything I’d say this release is about showing off the depth of atmosphere she can create by herself, beyond the collabs-and-compilations mode that makes up much of her catalogue so far. I’ve seen MMW tear it up with experimental noise kids, play the serious classical scene as well as mix it up with the new generation of ambient artists coming up on the local front too. Music in Exile are on a good wicket with this release and Mindy Meng Wang is one to watch.

- Kieran Ruffles.