Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Manjia Luo

 
Manjia Luo 


Sydney, Australia – September 8, 2017 – With over two dozen albums to her name, Manjia Luo has continued to prove why she is a force within the New Age community with her latest, Wish Pond featuring her lead single “Joy Fluctuation of Wave.” Eight tracks deep, Wish Pond plays along with her previous releases nicely. Fitting into the consistency of what has made Luo a prominent mainstay in Australia over the years. New Age with hints of jazz, Asian melody, and an instrumental flare is what Luo is best at and known for. Her compositions are overflowing with passion, played on piano and violin.

New Age and New Age textures go hand in hand to earn the genre tag, but sometimes they can lean heavier one way or the other and still get filed under it. This is an artist who’s carved out a career for herself by blending many of the elements that can make up New Age music. Whatever it is that earns it is laced throughout the Wish Pond album like a pond filled with fairytales. With titles like the opener “Autumn Spectacle” to start with, it’s purely hypnotic from there out. Music for any casual or formal environment, as long-as it’s quiet and peaceful, because that is the best way to describe Manjia Luo’s music.

She plays a very mean violin with a passion like no other, and it’s fragile yet commanding. “Water & Life, No. 2 (Violin)” displays a healthy dose of how she blends jazz with Asian melody to come out with her own brand of New Age. It sounds like a symphony once it builds up into the cadenza at the end before lightly fading away. This is almost too much for pop and other style of music lovers, but a vital source of inspiration for the more serious musician. It also doesn’t mean you have-to be that serious to like it. Anyone can be captivated by such remarkable works. Listen with a sense of urgency and see.


“Joy Fluctuation of Wave” being the lead-off single, it comes as no surprise this does in-fact make New Age sense. If it opened the album it would make even more sense, but if you already know her music you’re leading and I’m following. I just like the sound of it all. This is some of the best mood music that has run across me in a long time. You only get to appreciate these things if you’re exposed to them. “Angeni's Love” is one of the most moving piano pieces to hear on record. It’s worth keeping on repeat for hours. Keep it on loop and don’t let the fingers stop sweeping across the keys like a modern jazz dancer on the floor.

From where the title “Tom & Jerry Rocked The 13th Floor” comes I do not know, but the song is another epic piano escapade where she just kills it once again. It’s like a rollercoaster of pianos riding through the clouds, it’s that mystical. And speaking of mystical, the title song ‘Wish Pond” is like listening to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the music box or something. It’s so melancholy it’s almost childlike. Her piano work "Love Particles" won the 1st Prize Instrumental at ASA Awards 2014 (The 34th National Songwriting Awards, Australia). She performed it at the ceremony. Manjia also the winner of MusicOz Awards 2013 in Jazz/Classical. Her advice to “Travel With Light” closes the set.  

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