Artist Profile: Isabelle Huang Ling

Isabelle Huang Ling (Chinese name: 黄龄) came highly recommended from various people on Baidu, who use the words ‘criminally underrated’ and ‘creative’ in a music industry that often prizes looks over actual performance skills. Her musical style is indeed very unique, and she possesses a plaintive yet rich voice somewhat reminiscent of older Chinese folk traditions. Her songs are a blend of pop, R&B, folk and ballads – quite versatile.

I admit, her songs take a while to get used to, due to Huang’s highly distinctive style, but I like them, so I thought I would share.

Download: [Mediafire]

Her signature song, and the eponymous single on her first album Itchy/痒 (released in 2007):

Live guitar duet for 夜来香/Fragrance of Night:

Just a reminder: my providing the songs here are purely for sampling purposes, if you do like her music, please support the artist by purchasing the album at Yesasia. This goes double for artists that are not as famous, so please don’t ‘hit and run’!

Revisiting Old Favourites

So, watching the first two eps of Painter (zomm so good people, go watch it) reminded me of 青花瓷, or Blue Vase, which kinda sorta has painting and artistry in general as a theme. The vase and paintings he talks about are anthropomorphic – the beautiful woman who forever charms and beckons but is never possessed by the artisan.

Anyhoo, first impressions of Painter. It has pluses on plot (interesting setting and beginning), acting (Moon and Park do a greeeeat job), atmosphere (the right mixture of levity and a sense of impeding disaster), and the most vibrant palette I’ve seen in a while. Everything is just so lush – not sure if it’s because this series is visually oriented to begin with, or my inner eye for greenery has withered of disuse from living in a city, but dudes, this show is gorgeous.

The only thing I find a bit weird is the relationship portents in this show. Something tells me that the brother is feeling incestuous and Park is just old. (Ack, the Severus Snape and Hermione Granger kind of age difference.) But let’s not dwell on that. 😀

But don’t take my word for it! Go watch it yourself!

Download the song here.

Original lyrics and translation below: