HANNAH PEEL & BEIBEI WANG
LATEST TO BE TAKEN FROM THEIR FORTHCOMING COLLABORATION
LIVE DATES IN OCTOBER
[Beibei Wang & Hannah Peel, credit Raphaël Neal]
Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang have shared a new track, ‘Awaken The Insects’, the latest to be taken from their debut album together, The Endless Dance, out on blue vinyl, a Dinked orange marble edition, CD and digitally on 22 May 2026 via Real World Records. The album’s release will be followed by a series of dates in October: at Gateshead International on 20 October, Glasgow’s St Lukes on 21 October and London’s Barbican on 24 October.
Listen to ‘Awaken The Insects’ HERE
The new track highlights the sense of play across the album. Wang’s voice, a key percussive element on the track, can be heard in a rhythmic duet with bamboo clappers called Kuai Ban [快板]. At first, she sounds angry and defiant, but she’s actually reciting a tongue-twister (which have a long tradition in Chinese comedic and performing artists) that she learnt as a child. “As soon as I showed it to my Chinese friends, they could not stop laughing” says Wang.
The Endless Dance is grounded in the strength of ancient concepts, and comes alive with the joy and freedom of play as together, the artists travel through the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar with a cornucopia of sound in tow – synths and prepared piano alongside traditional and unconventional percussion that includes rice bowls and a jawbone.
Both genre-defying, storied artists in their own right, Ivor Award winning and Mercury Prize nominated Northern Irish producer and composer Hannah Peel, and Chinese percussionist Beibei Wang originally met while working on Manchester Collective’s 2023 album NEON, and soon after performed a fully improvised show at Kings Place in London, as part of Peel’s residency. “We wanted to create a different type of world through imagination,” Peel explains.
The album is collaged together from recordings made over five days at legendary rural studio Real World, a setting which aligned with the duo’s inspiration from the natural world. With their intentions set and shared musical language already established, Peel and Wang created sounds without self-consciousness, locking into tones and rhythms that felt fun and energetic. From track to track, The Endless Dance is unpredictable and unexpected.
The sessions were also rooted in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism, which emphasises the importance of harmony and intuition. “We appreciate and value what we're doing in the moment – this is very Taoism,” says Wang. “We don't worry about the result, we don't stress about so much preparation. We don't resolve the chords; we let them go on and on, letting them flow, and letting nature guide us.”
The duos love of improvisation and connection are evident throughout the album, encouraged by producer Mike Lindsay [LUMP, Tunng, Guy Garvey, Jon Hopkins] who brought a new level of energy and creativity to the record as he was given free rein to try out ideas. “Mike loves elements that are nuanced, like breath or the noises in a room,” says Peel, who highlights Lindsay's organic sensibility towards the work. “It was important to find a producer who could pull together something human and connected, that you could dance to, or you could put on while traveling to new destinations.” The album also features guest musician Hyelim Kim, who plays the Daegeum [대금 (大笒)], a Korean flute with “colourful overtones on every note”.
The Endless Dance is a major work from two accomplished, singular artists – but it’s also the sound of mutual curiosity and shared fun, or as Wang puts it: “Two women talking in totally different languages that had a wonderful chat.”
The Endless Dance is released by Real World on 22 May 2026
The Endless Dance tracklisting (cat # RW269)
Wild Geese Arrive
Mantis vs Horse
Grain Rain
Tiger Sex
Offerings To The Beast
Limit Of Heat
Thunder Begins To Soften
Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang live
Hannah Peel will be at Milton Court on 23 October for PIA – a brand-new live music and dance production for her 7-movement odyssey Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia (2020). The production was created with choreographer Katya Bourvis and creative producer Tala Lee-Turton, and will be shaped by the sound of a 17-piece brass band.
EDITOR’S NOTES
Hannah Peel is a Northern Irish artist, composer, producer, broadcaster (regularly presenting on the BBC Radio 3 show, Night Tracks) and Belfast Music Patron (following its City of Music 2021 status by UNESCO). Often inspired by the connections between science and music, her studio albums include 2022’s work with the Paraorchestra, The Unfolding, which was nominated for an MPG award (for Self-Producing Artist); 2021’s Mercury Prize nominated Fir Wave; 2016's Awake But Always Dreaming and Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, scored for synthesisers and a 30 piece colliery brass band.
Peel received an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (Original Dramatic Score) for the score she composed and produced for 'Game of Thrones: The Last Watch'. In 2020 she created the soundtrack for BBC documentary, 'Lee Miller - A Life On The Frontline’ and was awarded an MPG award for her soundtrack production on the 4-part Channel 5/Netflix TV thriller ‘The Deceived’.
In 2023, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning drama, ran at the National Theatre, with a new score by Peel, and she was Artist In Residence at Kings Place (where the collaboration with Beibei Wang originated). That same year she became the first solo female composer to win the Ivor Novello award for Best TV Soundtrack (for Midwich Cuckoos). Her credits in 2025 include Mubi's 'neo-western thriller Bring Them Down; the Netflix film Scoop starring Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper and she also recorded a piece with the BBC Philharmonic that marked Jodrell Bank’s 80th celebrations.
2026 will see the release of several feature films scored by Hannah. These include the book adaptations of Bernard MacLaverty’s Midwinter Break and Robert McFarlane’s Underland, plus the Australian horror film Saccharine, written and directed by Natalie Erika James.
Beibei Wang is a uniquely vibrant, genre-defying percussion artist and composer. With her background in both Classical and traditional Chinese percussion, she brings her characteristic “high energy virtuosity” (Wall Street Journal) to performances of diverse repertoire.
As a contemporary classical soloist, Beibei has performed around the world with leading orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and has appeared as soloist on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including the Barbican Centre, Elbphilharmonie, and Southbank Centre. Beibei maintains a long-term artistic collaboration with her mentor, Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, having performed his Organic Music Trilogy percussion concerti worldwide, highlights of which include the world premiere of “Earth Concerto” at Grafenegg Festival.
Always looking to push boundaries, recent highlights for Beibei feature a diverse range of projects ranging from performances of contemporary works with RPS-award winning ensemble Manchester Collective, to the internationally touring dance production Samsara from Aakash Odedra Company. Beibei also collaborates with the avant-garde collective Rubbish Music on interdisciplinary projects exploring connections between science, culture, and the environment, and she leads Chinese percussion at SOAS, University of London. Further to this, Beibei’s compositions combine her Chinese cultural heritage with contemporary style and reflections on modern online and electronic life.
