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Mirror Flower 镜​花​水​月

by Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, Tim Shiel

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about

Mirror Flower 镜花水月 is the return single from Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 & Tim Shiel, their first new music as a duo since their breakout debut 2021 EP Nervous Energy 一 触​即​发.

The Chinese phrase 镜花水月 (jing hua shui yue) means "Mirror Flower Water Moon" or literally "flowers in the mirror, moon reflected on the water." It is similar to the Western idiom of looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses - that beauty can be illusory, or fleeting, like reflections on the water.

Mindy says: "As we were making this song, I felt immediately like the melody we so pretty, that it was almost too pretty to be true. So this Chinese phrase, "mirror flower water moon" came to my mind, because it describes those kind of things that too good to be true: a beautiful illusion like the moon reflecting in the water, a flower reflecting in the mirror. Beautiful things can sometimes make you feel sad because they remind you that beauty can't always last."

The new song is accompanied by a video filmed by Nick Mckk (Julia Jacklin, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever), featuring Malaysian-Australian dancer Tony Yap, whose improvised approach to movement is informed by Asian shamanistic practice.

Mindy continues: "Tony's practice is mainly in trance dance - he improvises his movement, reflecting on his feelings and thoughts in that moment. In this video, it was fascinating to see his reflection in movement to our music. His dance is so captivating and has that same quality of 镜花水月 - it only happens in that moment, it blossoms in the moment, and he can never revisit that same exact thing again.

Tony migrated to Australia from Malaysia many years ago, and even though we both live here and we love Australia, we hold onto the roots of the culture that we grew up within. Our Asian families nurtured us, and when we share our memories, we talk about the special smell of Asian food and about the special communities we group up in. When we both go into trance in our work, Tony and I are very likely to go to a similar place - those childhood memories of Asian communities we grew up in."

Melbourne-based duo Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 & Tim Shiel are two of Australia's most distinctive musical voices.

Mindy is a renowned avant-garde composer and master of the guzheng, a traditional Chinese instrument. Tim is a celebrated electronic musician whose work extends from left-field dance music to ambient video game soundtracks. He is also known for his radio tastemaker roles at Double J and triple j.

Their unique works connect ancient traditions to the distant future, with exploratory wide-eyed production that oscillates from jungle breakbeats to minimal house thumps, incorporating smoky trip-hop atmospheres and lush ambiences. Ever present throughout are the dreamlike melodies of Mindy's 21-string guzheng - a two-metre long Chinese harp with a rich tradition stretching back millenia.

credits

released April 27, 2023
Written and performed by Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 and Tim Shiel.
Property of the artists under exclusive license to Music in Exile (2023).

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Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 Melbourne, Australia

Mindy Meng Wang is a versatile Chinese/Australian composer and guzheng player.

Her work explores the fertile space between traditional and contemporary practices, and is part of a significant movement of Chinese musicians redefining and reinvigorating their musical tradition.

Mindy's vision is to create a strong voice for young female composers of Chinese heritage around the world.
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