Virginia Wing is the musical collaboration of Alice Merida Richards and Sam Pillay, formed in 2012 and currently based in Manchester. Acutely aware of the misguided perceptions when operating within the paradigm of a male-female electronic duo, their music is a sprawling amalgamation of experimental pop songs with texture, depth and nuance; that’s daring, progressive and forever bold. After two stunning albums, they return with politically charged new album ‘Ecstatic Arrow’ (out now on Fire Records) that reminds us “of the astonishing things you can do with pop music (The Quietus). ‘Ecstatic Arrow’ borrows from the heterogeneous terrain of The Flying Lizard’s ‘Fourth Wall’, the exuberant technology assisted pop of Yellow Magic Orchestra and the playful sophistication of Lizzy Mercier Descloux, arriving at the evergreen intersection of pop music and conceptual art. The voice of Alice Merida Richards is more compelling and expressive than ever. The glacial deadpan of previous records has given way to a more candid, self-possessed delivery, showing an appreciation for the humour and tragedy innate in the downtown Arcadia of Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley or even Lynn Goldsmith’s Will Powers. In 2017 Virginia Wing released collaborative self-titled album with Xam Duo, saxophonist Christopher Duffin regularly plays live with the duo and can be heard on the new album. They also covered lost Suzanne Menzel track “I Feel It Starts Again” with Jane Weaver on Fire Records’ curated EP ‘Lost Library’and their Record Store Day EP ‘Rhonda’ (2016) saw them collaborate with Koichi Yamanoha (Grimm Grimm).