Lucinda Chua Yian Vinyl

Building on the warm, elemental soundscape of 2021’s ‘Antidotes’ EPs and the moody, elegant timbre of her cello, Lucinda Chua presents YIAN, a deeply introspective and fully realised vessel of creative expression.

Born to an English mother and a Chinese-Malaysian father with part indigenous Malaysian ancestry, she grew up in the English town of Milton Keynes. Her parents did not speak Mandarin, and her surroundings lacked a strong Asian community or role models who looked like her. Chua began her work on YIAN in search of the missing piece, for an answer to the disconnect from her Chinese heritage.

YIAN is as much an unpacking of Chua’s identity as a reinvention of it, a new way of seeing, pieced together through the practise of her artistic craft. “It’s like what I do with the cello, a classical instrument with so many historic undertones – running it through the pedals, changing its voice, playing it standing up, hacking with the meaning and symbolism of it. I respect the past yet build upon it in my search for a feeling of freedom.