Trio piano, violon, Guzheng. 
Musique du film "Operation Free Lunch" de Fan Lixin.

A Quiet morning Over the Yu Nan

My band Wang Meng+Yu Miao released our first album on 10th of July.

Produced by Yan Jun
Recorded by Dong Qian @KYM Studio
Mixed and mastered by Yan Jun @KYM Studio
Guest handpan performed by Shi Lei
Cover work by Wang Meng
Design by Yang Danyang DANDAN

released July 10, 2020

Wang Meng + Yu Miao is a musical duo composed of Shanghai–based new media artist Wang Meng and Beijing-based guzheng master Yu Miao.

By paring traditional acoustic instruments and electronic music and departing with traditional performance forms, the pair explore the relationship between humanity and digital science through their musical dialogue, bridging musical expression with the field of new media art. 

It is difficult to summarize their style in one paragraph, a synthesis that blends the noise of the digital age and the Zen of ancient Chinese culture. Seriousness and emotion, coldness and sensitivity, fantasy and reality, modern and classical concepts – all blends and collides when Wang and Yu conjure their unique sonic experience.

王萌+于淼” 是由新媒体艺术家王萌和音乐家于淼创立的音乐组合，他们通过对原声乐器的独特演奏与电子乐的对话展开人性与数字间关系的思考与讨论。

王萌， 新媒体艺术工作者，放射能视觉工作室创始人，他曾为众多知名音乐人担任舞台多媒体设计，艺术创作广涵盖新媒体艺术、音乐、视觉短片、实验影像、当代戏剧等领域。

于淼，生于音乐世家，自幼习古筝，其独特的现代演奏方式和东西方乐器的混搭，给予古筝音乐全新的演绎。法国媒体曾称誉她为“中国古典音乐艺术与中国当代创新、西方即兴音乐艺术出色结合的创新者与展现者”。

起初两个人并没有“严肃”的乐队规划，却发现在即兴的合作中出乎意料的合拍，于是他们便把“瞎玩”变成了“事业”，随之而来有了更多的演出，更多的曲目，最终录制完成了首张专辑，《Both》。

《Both》中收录的作品是他们平日演出中的固定曲目。虽说是固定曲目，其实两人总是在一些相对固定的结构中即兴，每一次演奏都有着不同的细节处理，为现场带来意想不到的惊喜，以及那些宝贵的、难以复制的美丽意外。这种创作习惯也被他们带入到专辑的录制过程中。有些曲目源于短小微妙的旋律动机（《Lahepa》），有的则源于日常生活中的所见所闻（《Qianqian》 《Black Rock》），更多的是这个“电子+古筝”二人组无法绕开的话题：传统与现代的跨界与碰撞，数字和人性的关系，对抗与对话，矛盾与统一……

古筝作为中国古典乐器的代表之一，让大多数国人对这件乐器的理解总是局限在“传统”与“国粹”的刻板印象中。对于淼而言，突破传统技术型的器乐演奏方式，把古筝作为一种声音探索的手段是她所尝试的。通过独创的演奏方式与效果器的结合，她为这件古老乐器带来了新的声音，她的音乐就是传达她内心的感情。中国传统音乐对于意境的格外关注与电子氛围音乐的探索方向刚好交汇在同一个频段，这也正是于淼在现代音乐中的传承。

同样的碰撞与融合也可以在唱片封面中觅到。数码合成的湖水与草木山石暗合着音乐人名字的拆解（水：淼；植物与山石：萌），构图比例与色调参考了传统的中国水墨画，却又用3D渲染的方式赋予电子音乐的数字质感。而最有趣的细节莫过于在封面中暗藏的颜文字符号٩(˃̶͈̀௰˂̶͈́)و（¯﹃¯），它们也是王萌和于淼在现场演出中反复使用的视觉元素之一。颜文字出现于互联网初期，由电脑输入字符组成表情图形，在千禧一代的网络聊天中曾被广泛使用，但不久随着动图表情的出现，颜文字被迅速替代和遗弃。网络时代的迅速发展仿佛压缩了人们对时间和历史的感知，颜文字在后互联网时代已经成为一种复古和回潮，然而相对于更古老的文字符号，颜文字又是全新的时代产物。这也是王萌和于淼的音乐作品希望探讨的，电子音乐和古筝的合奏，究竟是传统的当代，还是当代的传统？相信每个人听完这张专辑后，都会有不一样的答案。

08 Both

2020 WangMeng+YuMiao released new album "both" on July 10th, you can listen the full album now.
Produced by Yan Jun  
Recorded by Dong Qian @KYM Studio 
Mixed and mastered by Yan Jun @KYM Studio 
Guest handpan performed by Shi Lei 
Cover work by Wang Meng
 Design by Yang Danyang DANDAN

Wang Meng + Yu Miao is a musical duo composed of Shanghai–based new media artist Wang Meng and Beijing-based guzheng master Yu Miao.

By paring traditional acoustic instruments and electronic music and departing with traditional performance forms, the pair explore the relationship between humanity and digital science through their musical dialogue, bridging musical expression with the field of new media art. 

It is difficult to summarize their style in one paragraph, a synthesis that blends the noise of the digital age and the Zen of ancient Chinese culture. Seriousness and emotion, coldness and sensitivity, fantasy and reality, modern and classical concepts – all blends and collides when Wang and Yu conjure their unique sonic experience.

"王萌+于淼"
WangMeng+YuMiao
Composer/Guzheng: YuMiao
Electronic/Visual: WangMeng
Ambient , Chinese folk , electronic, ambient techno, easy listening

08 Both

Miao Yu

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