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Through negotiating object, time and space, Mervin Wong delivers resonant sound that expands past tangible place.

A new reckoning, of self within setting, to engage through an embodied presence of being, here and now in this 4-track journey, Akasha.

Album artwork by Sarah Isabelle Tan

Akasha (EP) is live on digital streaming platforms

Akasha - A Live Experience will happen this Friday, 25 March 2022 at The Nest, PASIR PANJANG POWER STATION A

Originally presented as a live listening experience, Akasha by Mervin Wong was born out of the initial encounter with solid volumes and fluid fabrics within the confines of BREATH, an installation of crafted pieces by Josh Tirados Suarez and Sarah Isabelle Tan.

A tender response when faced with its contrasting materiality, of hardness and softness, a motivation to capture that atmospheric layer that resonated within.

With the intent of expanding this verse, now comes a new reckoning, a presentation of a different kind, that is driven by performance and enhanced by object, texture, tone and place, a negotiation of space with sound, to engage through an embodied presence of being, here and now.

In Akasha

Originating from the viola, it aims to evoke an atmosphere of vastness that expands endlessly. In an unfamiliar landscape in a different world - expanding seas of sand populate the terrain, and winds blow endlessly to reshape the landscape. The sun radiates its beams as it pulsates with waves of heat that scorch this land.

A Warm Place

Staying in a sort of state of stasis - one where time either freezes or where eons are drifting by. Perhaps time passes at a mycelial pace.

Walk to Silence

Toward a vanishing point, time has reached a standstill. Walking on threads of aether. Each step brings one closer to an end, a reset. Or perhaps, an endless sunset, one that is achingly slow and eternal.

Aching Blue

The hold on time begins to thaw. A warmness fills the aether, a sense of heat, a loving-kindness and a sort of yearning.

Influenced by themes of fantasy and science fiction with perspective as a butoh practitioner, Josh Tirados Suarez explores nuance in his work with folkloric speculation and post-apocalyptic imagination, that spans from expansive world views to an atomic transfiguration.

Sarah Isabelle Tan is a visual artist whose practice delves into the ontology of being and time, navigating between nuances of the tangible and intangible. She is particularly interested in the traces and (re)representation of the temporalities of things. Her work explores personal encounters of loss, memory, fleeting moments, and a longing to possess what is always beyond reach. Ultimately they attempt to comprehend and perceive the indexical nature of presence and absence- a perpetual process of becoming.

Mervin Wong is a performer. Raised in chambers of string, it took a moment for him to recognize the Viola as his truest limb. The tectonic shift to this deeper, enduring register has shaped his foray into electronic music-making. Mournful but reft of grief. Mervin Wong’s long-form sensibilities rouse our waterflesh.

Years of forging his intention allow his process to be bright with speed. In service of resonance, every grain is burnished to the bone. A canoe made of ice. His sounds return to matter. Where footsteps span lightyears. Waves seethe and where the cosmos can glide through an albatross.

Mervin Wong is a performer, violist, composer, and electronic producer. He is an artist that is deeply dedicated to the shared experience of sound.

For media enquiries:
hello@mervinwong.com

For booking enquiries:
booking@19sixtyfive.com.sg