Ariel Wang
photo by Brittany Powers
“Wang’s music feels like the soundtrack to a powerful moment and listening, watching, you can’t help but feel overwhelmed in the right kind of way.” – Michelle Kicherer, The Deli Magazine
After almost a decade since the inception of her first grassroots EP, Ariel Wang has come into herself as an artist and musician with the writing and recording of her new upcoming full-length, “Bridges,” set to come out September 14, 2019. With splashes of bowed banjo and thumping cello, complex string arrangements and acoustic guitar, her music pulls from a deep grounding in folk with traces of metal, western classical music, and progressive rock, growing from her latest EP, “Cat Faze.” The new album traces her path of growth, lessons, traumas, triumphs, love, and heartbreak, cataloging experiences both unique yet universal. Recorded at New, Improved Studio in Oakland with some exceptional Bay Area talent, the sounds are wide-ranging but connected, passionate and grounded.
Although she identifies as a Bay Area native, and has spent almost two decades in the East Bay, her roots spread wide, having lived in multiple parts of the country from Chicago to Baton Rouge as a child. Her background is a Bachelors in Psychology from UC Berkeley, Masters in Violin Performance from San Francisco State University, working briefly as a truffle-maker with a local chocolatier, Coracao Confections, frolicking in the Northern California woods, and deep connection and immersion in the East Bay area underground music scene. One of her life-long endeavors is to create events which bring together the most unlikely cast of characters, and so “Bridges” not only refers to the connection of a person to her younger self, but also the bridges between communities that are crucial to their vitality.