Dustin Wong

Hawaiian-born Dustin Wong of indie art rock groups Ponytail and Ecstatic Sunshine took the idea of going solo literally. A performer of instrumental guitar pieces, Wong performed his first show (in August of 2009) by his lonesome, aided only by a pedal board that he used to build a cacophony of textures through delay effects and loop units. His first release, the 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 autumn of 2010, Thrill Jockey released Infinite Love. Wong relocated to Japan and connected with Shibuya-kei artist Takako Minekawa after playing some shows in 2011. The pair collaborated on 2013's Toropical Circle, which blended Wong's experimental tendencies 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 deep into his explorations of rhythm and cycles.