<p>- For some people it’s like difficult circumstances don’t seem to exist. Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 is back with her third release of the pandemic period. It’s not any old bedroom recording either, but a collection of improv duets, the kind of thing that you imagine would’ve been hard to put together over email. Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, however, has spent her career defying expectations. Player of the Chinese guzheng -a zither / koto style instrument steeped in two-thousand-five-hundred years of history (the ‘gu’ part of the name literally means ‘ancient’, so I’m told)- she’s taken her axe in boldly modern and western directions. At home in China she has been told she’s ‘ruining the instrument’ and taken that in her stride. Forging a musicological, recording and performance career across China, the UK and Australia she only seems to be becoming more eclectic with time. I don’t know if Meng Wang’s experienced any disastrous setbacks, has any ashes to rise from, but on her latest, <em>Phoenix Rising</em>, she is definitely an artist soaring free and blazing her own path.</p>
<p>Meng Wang actually talks down the trail-breaking qualities of this record. In conversation with <strong>Cat Woods</strong> of <strong>Audiofemme</strong>, she reckoned, modestly, that since she’s worked with everyone on this record before there are ‘few surprises’. Also, <em>Phoenix Rising</em> is less a new statement than a summation of the styles she’s been working in and her passion for intense, emotional music. Still, unless you’ve been following her around the world, to partake in a near-endless list of collaborative projects and performances, there is -as far as I know- little opportunity to hear recordings of what she’s done with her friends. Beyond her solo work, the only other team-up I've heard is the EP, <em>Nervous Energy </em><em>触即发</em> created with Oz producer <strong>Tim Shiel</strong>, so, for both newcomers and even reasonably committed fans, there’s plenty that’s fresh for the ears, here.</p>
<p>The record splits into two halves, the first featuring analogue, live instrumentation and, perhaps, a more traditional understanding of what a duet is. The second explore electronic, digital creations and a bit more studio trickery too, I think. Across the course of the release, Meng Wang explores her instrument’s naturally wide timbral qualities and capacities for micro-tuning and expands on that by introducing experimental elements, like a western bow or a plectrum, to try and get the most out of every different outing. Kicking things off, well known jazz pianist <strong>Paul Grabowsky</strong> has a moody conversation with Meng Wang’s guzheng on <em>Night Storm </em><em>雷雨夜眠迟</em>and that’s followed by the more soothingly titled <em>Mother River </em><em>母亲</em><em>,</em><em>河</em> with percussionist <strong>Claire Edwardes</strong>, though in execution and despite the gentle vocal it is still quite unsettling. I love <strong>Brian Ritchie</strong>’s left turn from the <strong>Violent Femmes </strong>into the fluting of the shakuhachi for <em>Frosty Mountain </em><em>冷山雾海</em>; the two instruments complement each other well, taking turns to perform virtuosic solos and it may be the most evocative playing here.</p>
<p>The pensive solo piece <em>Ferrofluid </em><em>无穷 </em>serves as a border between the halves of the record, before the electronics begin with the languid but luxurious ambience of <em>Undercurrent </em><em>暗涌</em> with Vietnamese-Australian producer and pianist <strong>Fia Fiell</strong>. Chinese techno producer <strong>Ma Haiping</strong> really gets his <strong>Aphex Twin </strong>on for the idm of <em>Activation </em><em>异变</em>, while soundscaper <strong>Daniel Jenatsch </strong>is a trifle more reserved in his minimal electro beats and glass chime samples, closing the record, even as it leaves you feeling that there’s still a deep well of energy in there, waiting to be tapped.</p>
<p>With a little help from the <strong>Flash Forward</strong> project -a much-needed government lifeline down in Melbourne, that seems to have had a hand in putting out half the records we’ve heard this year- Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, who, again, I’m not sure needed any help has made another boldly eclectic artistic statement. Shining rebirth or simple recapitulation it still sounds very little like anything else out there. In a time where the world is isolated and threatening to retreat even further behind high, dividing walls, the fearless boundary transgressions of Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 are most welcome.</p>
<p>- Chris Cobcroft.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3421642301/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://mindymengwang.bandcamp.com/album/phoenix-rising">Phoenix Rising by Mindy Meng Wang 王萌</a></iframe>