Dustin Wong

Known for his experimental, exploratory guitar work with Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail, Takako Minekawa, and on his own, Dustin Wong was born in Hawaii but raised in Tokyo. After returning to the U.S. to go to university, he played with several bands, most notably Ecstatic Sunshine, his mid-2000s duo with Co La's Matt Papich, and the sprawling noise-pop outfit Ponytail. He began his solo career in 2007, crafting instrumental guitar pieces aided only by a pedal board that he used to build a cacophony of textures through delay effects and loop units. His first release, 2009's Seasons LP, followed the same format of unaccompanied guitar, and his second release, the cassette-only Let It Go for WTRCL, found him expanding his horizons with a touch of keyboard and drum machine. In the autumn of 2010, Thrill Jockey released Infinite Love. The following year, Ponytail released their third and final album, Do Whatever You Want All the Time, and broke up a few months later. In 2012, Wong released his third solo album, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, and returned to Japan after playing some shows with Takako Minekawa. The pair collaborated on 2013's Toropical Circle, which blended Wong's experimental approach with Minekawa's deceptively playful melodies. Later that same year Wong returned with the entirely solo collection Mediation of Ecstatic Energy, an instrumental collection going more deeply into his explorations of rhythm and cycles. He reunited with Minekawa for 2014's Savage Imagination, and they began working on their third collaboration soon after. The pair took inspiration from Japanese and European fusion artists, as well as some hearing issues Wong suffered while making Are Euphoria, which arrived in 2017 and featured production by Papich. ~ Jason Lymangrover