Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 & Sui Zhen

Origin of You is a startling new collaboration between Chinese-Australian composers Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 and Becky Sui Zhen, forming spontaneously one wintry afternoon in Melbourne and enduring with bonds that will last longer than a lifetime.

The debut release from these two auspicious artists revolves around three images that form the basis of their musical exploration:

空 (Kōng), or Emptiness; 疼 (Téng), or Pain; 气 (Chi), sometimes known as ‘Energy’.

It is from within these motifs that the central themes of this startling collaboration emerge. As described by Mindy Meng Wang --

“This is an album about two artists who got together and formed a sisterhood. It’s about understanding life, family and ourselves. It’s about transforming from being a woman into a mother. And it’s about human connection. We are not related, but we find a connection that comforts us as much as family does.”

The record centres around a continual shift in an individual’s understanding of identity and of the self; coming to terms with who you are, where you are from, and where you will go. It is about life, death, and birth. And it is about transformation: from daughter into woman, woman into mother, from outsider into friend.