ArtistInfo

Dustin Wong

g, b, US, Hawaii
Composer of Electronic and Rock

Los Angeles-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Dustin Wong crafts dense, exuberant music that lands somewhere between abstracted pop and progressive electronic production. While his series of solo albums released on Thrill Jockey focused on emotionally charged loop-based guitar sessions, his newest material finds him streaking off in the direction of multi-layered compositions that complement his six-string foundation with sampling keyboard arrangements and improvised electronic flourishes. Fluid World Building 101 With Shaman Bambu, his first release with Hausu Mountain, offers a diverse program of Wong’s sessions that span everything from high energy drum-laden workouts to luminous ballads that highlight his own impassioned vocal performances. In line with the bright optimism and playful prog sensibilities of his former band Ponytail, Dustin Wong approaches solo composition with the wide palette of an imaginary large ensemble teeming with synthetic voices that defy traditional roles of percussion and lead melody. His tracks tend to center around individual guitar or synth performances that serve as the spark for improvised overdubs, generally recorded in one take, that push his initial ideas through varied harmonic frameworks and textural backdrops. Recorded towards the end of his most recent years-long stint living in Tokyo alongside his partner and collaborator Takako Minekawa, Fluid World Building 101 bears the traces of Dustin Wong’s immersion in the traditions of electro-acoustic improvisation, ambient and new age musics, and future-facing sound design. After moving to LA and beginning a new chapter in his day-to-day life, Wong’s practice concurrently transitions to new heights of compositional complexity and emotional resonance.

Instruments

• Guitar
• Bass

Genres

• Electronic
• Rock
• Pop
• World

Plays With