Music in Exile presents a collaborative effort between Chinese/Australian avant-garde composer Mindy Meng Wang and her Melbourne-based contemporary Tim Shiel;
- Pressed to classic black vinyl
- Released on Music In Exile
- Written and performed by Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 and Tim Shiel
- Additional production and instrumentation by Tim Shiel
- Recorded by Tim Shiel and Stefan Blair
- Mixed by Tim Shiel
- Mastered by Andre Eremin
Nervous Energy, a collaborative effort between Chinese/Australian avant-garde composer Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, and her Melbourne-based contemporary Tim Shiel, is the first product of this series. Over the course of the year, as COVID restrictions ebbed and flowed, Tim & Mindy worked ceaselessly on developing new material, first recorded by Mindy on her 21-string traditional guzheng, and then shared with Tim via the internet to be reworked into something neither had imagined possible.
The result is four compositions that oscillate from breakbeat to minimal house influences and laid-back dub and pop sounds, underpinned throughout by an acoustic instrument almost two metres long and thousands of years old. It is a hymn to the world Mindy inhabits, a place where tradition is forced to adapt with changing values and different cultures.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.