Vienna!

I count myself pretty lucky to have discovered or been introduced to an amazing range of music. The leaps I've made from one singer or musician to another has been great fun, like how I found Dulce Pontes after her collaborations with Ennio Morricone and how I picked up Mich En Scene's CD after watching the movie, Tadpole. I also came to love Coralie Clement's style of singing and realized her brother Benjamin Biolay had written and produced all the songs on her CD, and his CDs aren't bad either. A couple of Coralie Clement's songs are featured on the soundtrack of Something's Gotta Give, and I was evilly smug about how I had her album for a whole four months before the rest of the world - excepting France and Montreal where the folks, I'm sure, were already on to her - came to know her after watching the recent romantic comedy.

My recent find is a singer-songwriter-pianist called Vienna Teng. I was on the National Public Rado (NPR) website looking for information about another indie singer, Grazyna Auguscik, a jazz vocalist, when I saw Vienna's picture on the front page. The two main details that made me sit up: her lovely name and her race. An Asian-American singer. I went to the NPR page on her and learned that she studied engineering with a minor in music at Stanford, worked for Cisco Systems in Silicon Valley and then decided to become a full-time musician. Lucky for us, because her two albums are wonderful collections of thoughtful lyrics and inspired melodies. She is a classically-tranied pianist, which anyone who has taken the ABRSM exams can lay claim to but Vienna takes her piano-playing further by using her technique to support the beautiful works she composes. In addition, there are cellos and guitars, instruments which always get my vote, on several songs, .

She's been compared to Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos, two singers she confesses to have influenced her, and even Norah Jones. Perhaps because I'm rather disappointed by Norah's latest album, which has a strong country feel (I don't dislike country; there're certain types of country I take to, and Norah's blend doesn't quite work for me), I find Vienna's music far more favorable. The songs aren't as quirky and difficult to access as some of Tori Amos's tunes, and she doesn't yodel as extensively as Sarah McLachlan. Her voice is sweet, unadorned and strong when the song calls for it. Her speaking voice is actually a deep alto, surprisingly.

Those who are familiar with Corrinne May will probably make comparisons, but again, I think Vienna has an edge over Corrinne's song-writing. At times, Corrinne's lyrics are a little on the fluffy side ("cotton candy clouds" or something close to that effect features in one of her songs), and although I do like some of her music, I didn't find myself as drawn to her words as I am to Vienna's, which tell interesting stories about people and places. I also like that Vienna adds in one or two unusual tunes, one of which, Unwritten Letter #1, has a distinctively Latin let's-tango feel, and it's supposed to be a sad song! It makes the lyrics all the more poignant. There's no self-pity or overly despairing tone and you admire Vienna for the intelligence and style of her music. On her second album, there's an uncredited track, which is a Taiwanese traditional song, "Green Island Serenade," and she does sing it in Chinese (her parents are migrants from Taiwan; Vienna grew up and has spent all her life in Northern California). When I heard it, I was swept back to my own childhood when I used to watch tons of Chinese and Taiwanese serials with my grandmother.

I suppose if you're still reading, you'd like to have a listen. There are a few links I thoroughly recommend. The NPR pages, and you can and should listen to the interviews with her (her speaking voice is lovely too).

The latest interview - click on "Weekend Edition - Sunday audio." You'll also notice a few audio samples from her latest album. I like "Mission Street."

The first interview about her debut album. Again, there are audio samples.

And if you're still reading and want to know more about Vienna, you can visit her website here and download clips of all her songs. Her albums are the kind which don't compel you to skip a track. I'm really impressed, and she must be the first Asian-American I know of to break into the American-vocalist-song-writing scene. Brava!

Posted by Monoceros at March 8, 2004 10:49 AM