LUCINDA CHUA 'YIAN'

Conscious to hold space within her music for people to live inside, CHUA thought often of 'YIAN' sound in terms of sonic spacing. The hushed, flickering tones of "Autumn Leaves Don’t Come" and swelling strings of instrumental "Grief Piece" sound completely intimate, like she’s singing into your ear, yet capacious, like soft cocoons of sound. “For me, the music is like a home.” Cultivating a Chinese dance practice is as much part of the story of 'YIAN' as the music itself. CHUA returned to dance after struggling with the conservative constraints of ballet as a child, finding intuition and affirmation in the fluidity and naturalism of Chinese classical, fan & ribbon and contemporary. Dance is entwined in the very texture of 'YIAN', with CHUA undertaking deep study of Chinese dance forms whilst working on the album–the Echo music video, CHUA’s take on a choreographed pop MV, is a moving and innovative homage to Chinese fan dance, martial arts, and the elements. Visually, the video is also inspired by the cult movies Chua grew up with (think Lady Snowblood, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Kill Bill, The Grudge and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), whose hyper-stylised female Asian characters were some of the only on-screen representations available to CHUA in her formative teenage years. 'YIAN' is as much an unpacking of CHUA’s identity as a reinvention of it, a new way of seeing, pieced together through the practise of her artistic craft. “It’s like what I do with the cello, a classical instrument with so many historic undertones – running it through the pedals, changing its voice, playing it standing up, hacking with the meaning and symbolism of it. I respect the past yet build upon itin my search for a feeling of freedom.”