The kite goes up the day after tomorrow — WayV's 'Vision Wings'

In three lines

• WayV release their 8th mini album 'Vision Wings' at 6 p.m. on August 10.
• The title track is '鸢 (Vision Wings)'. Seven tracks, including Chinese and English versions.
• After the release, their tour opens on September 12 and 13 at KBS Arena in Seoul.

What arrives the day after tomorrow

Item	Detail
Artist	WayV
Album	8th mini album 'Vision Wings'
Release	August 10, 6 p.m.
Title track	'鸢 (Vision Wings)'
Tracks	7 (including Chinese and English versions)
Tour	Opens September 12–13, KBS Arena, Seoul

Some of the seven are the same song in different languages. This team works primarily in the Chinese-speaking market, so language versions count toward the track total.

The guzheng and a jungle beat

The title track is said to lay hip-hop production built on a jungle beat over the melody of the guzheng, a Chinese traditional string instrument.

Putting a traditional instrument into a modern genre is a common attempt, but it usually ends as decoration — appearing once in the intro and vanishing. Used that way, the instrument becomes a sound effect.

The guzheng is plucked, so its sound cuts off short. A jungle beat is a finely chopped rhythm too. Both stack short sounds quickly, so laid over each other they either get in each other's way or push each other along. Which of the two happened decides this song.

The character '鸢'

The character in the title means a black kite — the bird — or a paper kite. The English gloss 'Vision Wings' runs along the same grain.

A bird and a paper kite are both in the sky, but they are opposites. The bird flies on its own; the kite is tied to a string. Cut the string and the kite doesn't fly away, it falls.

One character holds both. Set beside an English title that means wings, it makes a question: what are you tied to, and what do you fly by?

What follows the release

About a month after the album, on September 12 and 13, the third tour opens at KBS Arena in Seoul.

Leaving a month between release and tour is a setting that gives the songs time to settle. An audience arriving already knowing the new material reacts differently from one hearing it for the first time.

That the tour's first city is Seoul stands out too. For a team whose activity centres on the Chinese-speaking market, starting in Seoul shows where they intend to unfold this album from.

That's the last of the numbers. Now, the music.