ECSTATIC ARROW (COLOUR VINYL)

Virginia Wing return with Ecstatic Arrow, an

album which finds them in a place of renewed strength, optimism and clarity. Recorded in Switzerland, in the family home of long-
time friend and collaborator Misha Hering within the domesticity and gentle routine of communal life, the album represents a world

as predisposed to solemn introspection as it is to blithe conviviality. Ecstatic Arrow borrows from the heterogeneous terrain of The
Flying Lizard's Fourth Wall, the exuberant pop of Yellow Magic Orchestra and the playful sophistication of Lizzy Mercier

Descloux's Press Colour, arriving at the evergreen intersection of pop music and conceptual art. The resolute opener of Be Re-
leased and album centre point The Female Genius pair resonant Fourth World instrumentation with sonorous, loping drum pat-
terns. Elsewhere, the sentimental march of single The Second Shift plays out like an after-hours ballad re-imagined by Wally Ba-
darou and For Every Window There's a Curtain is coloured by the blue-lit haze of an Eventide warped tenor saxophone. Three

albums in, the voice of Alice Merida Richards is more compelling and expressive than ever. The glacial deadpan of previous rec-
ords has given way to a more candid, self-possessed delivery, showing an appreciation for the humour and tragedy innate in the

downtown Arcadia of Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley or even Lynn Goldsmith's Will Powers. It's with this voice that Richards
outlines a simple ideality that fortifies the entirety of Ecstatic Arrow - inequality pervades, destructive behaviours are inherited and
each subsequent generation has to reconcile the debts of its precursor - yet a space exists within ourselves and each other that

houses a fact we must be reminded of - we have the ability to choose. Even in moments of frustration, there persists a joy for liv-
ing that refuses to be confined. A depiction of a group finally at ease with itself, Ecstatic Arrow is a tribute to the internal momen-
tum that quietly guides us toward our destination.