Virginia Wing

Virginia Wing is a South London experimental pop group formed in 2012. The band’s core line-up includes Sam Pillay, Merida Richards and Sebastian Truskolaski. Pillay is a guitarist and keyboardist and was previously a member of Let’s Wrestle, while Richards is a keyboardist and vocalist.

Early releases and formation

The group takes its name from Grace Slick’s mother. After forming, Virginia Wing begins gigging, rehearsing and recording, and in 2013 it issues a single on Critical Heights and a self-titled 12-inch on Faux Discx. Its early work is associated with comparisons to Broadcast, Stereolab, This Heat and Blonde Redhead.

In 2014, the band releases its first album, Measures of Joy, recorded at Holy Mountain Studios in London with Misha Hering and issued by Fire Records. The album helps establish the band’s experimental pop style, with a lush but changing sound.

Developments in sound

By the time of Forward Constant Motion in 2016, Virginia Wing has moved in a more electronic direction. The album is again recorded with Misha Hering and is made by Richards and Pillay as a duo. The single “Rhonda” appears in April 2016 and features Koichi Yamanoha of Grimm Grimm.

The band’s music later expands to include jazz, psych-pop, and influences described as African and Asian. Its work also draws on a wide range of reference points, including Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Holger Czukay, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Prince and Timbaland.

Collaborations and later albums

In 2017, Virginia Wing collaborates with the electronic duo XAM Duo on Tomorrow’s Gift, an improvisation-based release. That same year, Pillay and Richards work with Jane Weaver on a cover of Suzanne Menzel’s “It Starts Again” for Fire Records’ Lost Library series.

Ecstatic Arrow follows in 2018. For that album, the band works at Misha Hering’s family home in Switzerland, and XAM Duo’s Christopher Duffin appears on saxophone. In 2019, Virginia Wing issues Pale Burnt Lake, a limited-edition cassette of abstract pieces based on material from Ecstatic Arrow.

Private Life appears in 2021, continuing the band’s emotionally direct approach while further extending its sound. Duffin returns on that record as the band continues to work with electronic textures and expanded influences.