BOOK AT SERIOUS.ORG.UK/K-MUSIC FIND OUT MORE AT KCCUK.ORG.UK LONDON’S FESTIVAL OF KOREAN MUSIC 5 OCTOBER 24 NOVEMBER 2022 ‘Original & thrilling’ ★★★★★ EVENING STANDARD
2022 5 October – 24 November K M U S I C F E S T I VA L 2 0 2 2 PA G E 2
K-Music Festival
This year’s line up includes a collaboration between duos Dal:um and ReMidas on gayageum, and geomungo (zithers); a pansori version of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man And The Sea’ by Jaram Lee; hardcore rock trio PAKK who join up with EERU (Lee Il-woo) of Jambinai for Silent Exorcism; the incredible genre-defying Dongyang Gozupa; Amsterdam-based jazz drummer Sun-Mi Hong and finally Park Jiha who, on piri (oboe), saenghwang (mouth organ) and yanggeum (hammered dulcimer), presents gorgeously meditative music from her critically acclaimed recent album ‘The Gleam’.
This autumn, as a world class exhibition ‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave’ opens at the V&A, the K-Music Festival, now in its ninth year, presents a musical response to that. The word hallyu (meaning ‘The Korean Wave’) refers to the phenomenal growth of the dynamic popular culture that has come out of Korea - music, movies, T V dramas, fashion, online games, cuisine since the late 1990s and is having a huge and ever growing impact and influence across the world. The K Music Festival shows us a world beyond K Pop it encompasses the originality and dynamism of hallyu with a line up of artists that use traditional Korean music to find new directions in sound, taking it into electronica, jazz, post rock and new twists on ancient art forms.
B O O K AT S E R I O U S O R G U K / K M U S I C PA G E 3 PROGRAMME DAL:UM & REMIDAS WED 5 OCT 19:30 MILTON COURT, BARBICAN CENTRE JARAM LEE: THE OLD MAN & THE SEA SUN 9 OCT 20:00 PURCELL ROOM, SOUTHBANK CENTRE PAKK + EERU OF JAMBINAI THU 13 OCT 19:30 RICH MIX SHOREDITCH DONGYANG GOZUPA SAT 29 OCT 19:45 COVENTRY WARWICK ARTS CENTRE SUN 30 OCT 20:00 MUSIC ROOM, LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC TUE 1 NOV 20:00 NORWICH ARTS CENTRE WED 2 NOV 20:00 PURCELL ROOM, SOUTHBANK CENTRE SUN-MI HONG QUINTET THU 17 NOV 20:00 PURCELL ROOM, SOUTHBANK CENTRE PARK JIHA: THE GLEAM THU 24 NOV 20:00 STONE NEST, SHAFTESBURY AVENUE
Dal:um is a Seoul based musical duo who creates a compelling sound world that treasures subtle dynamics and the space between the notes. The duo released their first album ‘Similar and Different’ on Glitterbeat’s label imprint tak:til and made their UK debut at the K Music Festival in 2021 as part of a highly successful tour across the UK and the Netherlands.
Dal:um & ReMidas OCT 19:30
‘Extracting intricate and experimental compositions from stringed folk instruments the gayageum and geomungo.’
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MILTON COURT, BARBICAN Suyeon Ha: Gayageum Hyeyoung Hwang: Geomungo Jihyun Park: Gayageum Minyoung Kim: Geomungo Dal:um who made their successful London debut at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre last year, return with an intriguing new collaboration with ReMidas, a duo band of the gayageum and geomungo to open the 2022 K Music Festival. Despite their apparent similarity, the gayageum and geomungo are surprisingly different from each other in structure, playing techniques and tone. This new string quartet show how innovative interpretations can create a harmony between the strong energy and beautiful voices of the two instruments. This programme is presented in partnership with the Yeowoorak Festival organised by the National Theatre of Korea and will premier new pieces that have been composed especially for the Yeowoorak and K Music festivals
THE GUARDIAN ‘An astonishing performance.’ BOOK NOW
ReMidas are formed by Jihyun Park, the leader of Hey String who impressed UK audiences in 2019 with their outstanding K Music performance and Minyoung Kim, one of the foremost geomungo performers of her generation
Though rooted in Korea’s traditional music, the two artists have been exploring and developing the timbres and techniques expressed through improvisation, creating sounds that break musical boundaries. The duo recently released their first regular album ‘ESSENTIAL’ in 2021, which through the natural sound of the instruments includes an exploration deep inside the composition. It’s a dynamic performance like a hummingbird flying around.’ VOGUE
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In The Old Man and The Sea Lee once again shows her greatness as a creator and performer to capture the fight between the spearfish from deep under the ocean and the old fisherman.
‘Through this performance, Jaram Lee shows that Pansori is the hottest performance genre in Korea. She is a fisherman who catches not only the years but also the hearts of people.’
Jaram Lee: The Old Man and The Sea
PURCELL ROOM, SOUTHBANK CENTRE
NEWSIS BOOK NOW
As a singer of pansori (Korea’s traditional opera) leading name Jaram Lee returns to London with The Old Man and The Sea inspired by Ernest Hemingway's classic masterpiece which premiered in Seoul in 2019.
SUN 9 OCT 20:00
Composer/singer: Jaram Lee
Jihye Park who won the Best New Director of the Donga Theatre Awards, one of the most prestigious awards for theatre production in Korea joins the production alongside the outstanding scenographer, Shindong Yeo.
Jaram Lee studied under legendary masters Hee-jin Eun, Jeong-suk Oh and Soon Sub Song, who recognised her talent at an early age. She has captivated audiences by writing and composing herself, releasing the only modern pansori, Sacheon-ga and Ukchuk-ga, based on works by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, which went on to perform sell-out shows across the world including her performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre in 2012. She also won the Best Actress award at the Korea Musical Awards for Musical Seopyenje, one of the steady seller musicals in Korea. Her talents don’t stop there as her work includes lead vocals for the Amado LEE Jaram Band, a regular on radio as a DJ presenter, gayageum player, guitarist, composer, writer, and music director. She took on the role of Music Composer & Music Director for a large changgeuk (Korean opera) work, Farewell My Concubine commissioned by the National Theatre of Korea in 2019 and directed by Wu Hsing-Kuo, one of the highly acclaimed Taiwanese directors of Peking opera.
Director: Jihye Park Scenographer: Shindong Yeo Percussionist: Junhyung Lee
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The band’s second album ‘Chilgasal’ (Seven Targets to Kill) was nominated as the Best Rock album in the Korean Music Awards in 2022. The trio have performed at Zandari Festa, one of the most well known indie music festivals in Korea every year since 2015 and made their international debut at the Urban Nomad Freakout Music Fest in 2019 in Taiwan.
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K M U S I C F E S T I VA L 2 0 2 2 PA G E 8 PAKK + EERU OF JAMBINAI: Silent Exorcism THU 13 OCT 19:30 RICH MIX SHOREDITCH EERU: Guitar & Pri Kim Dae-inn: Vocal & Guitar Park Hyun-seok: Bass Bum-sub Kwon: Drum EERU (full name, Lee II woo), the leader of Jambinai returns to the K Music Festival in a new collaboration with the hardcore rock band trio PAKK. Formed in 2014 PAKK stormed the Korean indie rock scene with their first full length album ‘Salpuri’ (Exorcism) creating furious sounds mixed with grunge and psychedelia. PAKK blend the elements of various heavy rock such as stacking up structure of post rock, raging screaming of screamo, and abrupt change of pace like mathcore.
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★★★★TIMES
EERU has pushed his musical boundaries ever since he became the principal musician of the Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra being at the forefront of new attempts to accommodate various genres of music based on traditional Sinawi. For this collaboration entitled Silent Exorcism, EERU will bring to the London stage a new world of explosive sounds and combine them with PAKK’s raging anger to exorcise all the devils - as he did for ONDA drawing more on thunderstorms, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, blizzards and desert winds. This programme is presented in partnership with the Yeowoorak Festival organised by the National Theatre of Korea and will premier new pieces that have been composed especially for the Yeowoorak and K-Music festivals.
‘Korea’s Jambinai impressed with their genre-blurring sound, applying traditional folk instruments to eruptive instrumental drone-rock reminiscent of Sonic Youth.’
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‘You won’t believe that they are only three on stage, with the bass and percussion blending and creating an experience that is intense, powerful, beautiful and colourful’ WOMEX
Dongyang Gozupa SAT 29 OCT 19:45 COVENTRY WARWICK ARTS CENTRE SUN 30 OCT 20:00 LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC MUSIC ROOM TUE 1 NOV 20:00 NORWICH ARTS CENTRE WED 2 NOV 20:00 PURCELL ROOM, SOUTHBANK CENTRE Dohyuk Jang: Percussion Eunhwa Yun: Yanggeum Minhwi Ham: Bass
Gozupa who previously wowed audiences with their London debut in 2021 will bring their sensational music back to the UK stage. Alongside their favourite songs, new tracks from their recent release will be premiered at K Music this year as they reach out to more audiences through their first tour across the UK.
Dongyang
Dongyang Gozupa’s music is not confined to one genre. In a hard hitting combination of progressive, post rock and the psychedelic possibilities of the yanggeum (Korean metal stringed zither), the name Dongyang Gozupa translates as ‘eastern high frequency’, providing a clue to their music a trail blazing, percussion driven sound with the yanggeum at its centre. Thanks to their outstanding performances, the band were selected to perform at WOMEX for the second consecutive year from 2020 to 2021. Since then, the trio has built their global presence through a number of international festival appearances and headline shows including at the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), the largest music festival in Malaysia and WOMAD Chile in 2022. The band’s Southbank Centre debut is a part of their international tour this year followed by their performances in Denmark.
B O O K AT S E R I O U S O R G U K / K M U S I C PA G E 1 1 BOOK NOW BOOK NOW BOOK NOW BOOK NOW
The popularity of Korean culture and arts has been growing rapidly across the world, as evidenced by the pop sensation BTS, the Oscar winning film Parasite and Squid Game, the mega hit Netflix drama. To reflect these trends, The V&A’s new exhibition, Hallyu! The Korean Wave, will open in September in London.
Our recently redeveloped building is on the University of Warwick campus. As the largest arts centre outside London, we have an amazing range of facilities under one roof. We are known for promoting a wide ranging, exciting programme. There is a large international student population at Warwick, including quite a few Koreans.
Colourful Korean Culture Beyond London
The K Music Festival has been a key front runner in leading the Korean Wave Since 2013, the festival has introduced outstanding Korean artists to London, and it aims to extend its boundaries beyond London to reach out to new audiences. Warwick Arts Centre has joined forces to bring the foremost Korean artists to Coventry, and we are thrilled to be able to collaborate with the K Music Festival this year.
I have long been an admirer of Korean performers and their work In both music and dance, I love their concentrated accuracy, skill and beauty, that brilliantly strays into something
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Julia Carruthers Programming Director Warwick Arts Centre
Warwick Arts Centre will be hosting Dongyang Gozupa on Saturday 29 October in our studio space (see page 10 11), just before they do their gigs in Liverpool, Norwich and London’ Southbank Centre on Wednesday 2 November. Apart from the Korean Music Festival, Warwick Arts Centre is excited about another opportunity to present contemporary Korean work as part of the 2023 Festival of Korean Dance, planned to take place late next Spring. We are hoping to continue to bring Korea’s colourful and vibrant culture and arts to Coventry and that this will contribute to and influence our local, richly diverse scene.
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wayward... verging on feral at times. Choreographer Sung Im Her’s work W.A.Y. reveals this absorbing mix of rigour and recklessness, just as choreographer Eun Me Ahn and the powerful music trio Dongyang Gozupa can unbalance the viewer as they blend the traditional and cut ting edge in wonderfully idiosyncratic combinations
Sun-Mi Hong, the winner of the Sena Dutch Jazz Competition 2018 presents her new album ‘Third Page: RESONANCE’ which will be released by Edition Records in November this year. Sun-Mi Hong was born in Incheon, Korea, but moved to Amsterdam to study at the Conservatoire and is now well established in the Dutch jazz scene with a distinct style combing rooted with well-tempered outbursts. The Sun-Mi Hong Quintet walks the line between elaborate composition and the great void that is improvised music. Their last album ‘A Self-Strewn Portrait’ (ZenneZ Records) won the Edison Award 2021 having previously taken second Prize at the Getxo International Jazz Competition 2017.
K-MUSIC FESTIVAL 2022 PAGE 14BOOK NOW
Sun-Mi Hong Quintet +Ant Law & Alex Hancock THU 17 NOV 20:00 SOUTHBANK CENTRE Alistair Payne: Trumpet Alessandro Fongaro: Bass Sun-Mi Hong: Drums & Composition Nicolo Ricci: Tenor Saxophone Chaerin Im: Piano Drummer
BIMHUIS ‘Sun-Mi Hong’s compositions have a wide span of tension and continue to fascinate because composition and free passages merge seamlessly. Subtle and probing rhythms alternate with driving percussion.
Sun Mi Hong brings in special guests, Ant Law & Alex Hancock highly acclaimed as composers and instrumentalists to offer a unique collaboration with the quintet. Sharing multiple awards, an Ivor Novello nomination and seven albums as leaders between them, Hitchcock and Law have created a vivid and mature soundworld on their new album ‘Same Moon’ which features Sun Mi Hong among other star guests.
’ EDISON AWARDS 2021 B O O K AT S E R I O U S O R G U K / K M U S I C PA G E 1 5
‘It was a deep journey with pools of light in amongst the dense layers of sound.’ PAUL PACE, RONNIE SCOT T'S. ‘Sun-Mi Hong is one of the most promising young jazz artists in The Netherlands. Her music balances between jazz, impressionism and the Korean tradition.’
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B O O K AT S E R I O U S O R G U K / K M U S I C PA G E 1 7 Park Jiha: The Gleam THU 24 NOV 20:00 STONE NEST SHAFTESBURY AVENUE
‘The
‘Park
SONGLINES ★★★★ BOOK NOW
MOJO MAGAZINE ★★★★ ‘...
Park Jiha has staked her place in the international music scene over the last few years as the official showcase for The World Music Expo, WOMEX and Classical:NEXT. Jiha’s latest majors on the pulsing grooves of a yanggeum and almost synth-like tones of a saenghwang. Packed with moments of intense reflection, with melodies straddling the ancient and modern, The Gleam confirms Jiha as a singular talent.’ uniquely sparse compositions of saenghwang, piri and yanggeum.’ THE GUARDIAN eight instrumental tracks are presented as an impressionistic journey from night into day and back again. The result is serene, luminous and utterly gorgeous’
Park Jiha stunned audiences and critics alike with her Glitterbeat album ‘Philos’, described by The Guardian’s 4 star review as ‘relentlessly creative approach to playing’. She returns with her third Glitterbeat release ‘The Gleam’ in the vein of her solo works, which looks to the future while conversing with a rich instrumental language from the past showing an even more mature sound inspired by movements of light throughout the day. Park Jiha performs her new material solo, by looping and building soundscapes from an array of traditional Korean instruments, such as piri (double reed bamboo instrument), saenghwang (double reed mouth organ of 17 bamboo pipes) and yanggeum (hammered dulcimer like metal stringed instrument).
K M U S I C F E S T I VA L 2 0 2 2 PA G E 1 8 Korean Cultural Centre UK Since being opened in London by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2008, the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) has presented year round exhibition programmes, film festivals as well as traditional and contemporary musical performances. From the KCCUK’s central London location (just off Trafalgar Square), the institution’s dedicated cultural team work to further develop established cultural projects, introduce new opportunities to expand Korean programmes in the UK and to encourage ongoing cultural exchange Visitor information Monday Friday: 10am 5.30pm (Free entry) Korean Cultural Centre UK, Grand Buildings, 1 Strand London WC2N 5BW +44 (0) 20 7004 2600 kccuk.org.uk
B O O K AT S E R I O U S O R G U K / K M U S I C PA G E 1 9 kdbDesignywww.eveesign.co.u PROGRAMME & VENUE PARTNERS
SERIOUS.ORG.UK/K-MUSIC K-Music Festival 2022 5 October – 24 November BOOK NOW
