This is definitely a Cafe OTO gig I’ll be prioritising.
Kim Doo Soo with Kim SoonOak
Monday 14 October 2019, 7.30pm
Cafe OTO | 18–22 Ashwin Street | Dalston | London E8 3DL
Tickets £14 | £12 advance | £10 members | Book tickets
Pleased to welcome back the incredible Korean folk artist Kim Doo Soo for his first show here in five years, this time performing with accordionist Kim SoonOak.
“The total effect is intimate, and when arrangements are enhanced by electric guitar, organ, cello or trumpet, it’s with great delicacy. Vocally I kept thinking of JJ Cale, that low-pitched refusal to speak up, and this is a husky, lived-in voice. At first its quivering seems off and mannered, but eventually its emotional impact is enormous for such a quiet style. Kim Doo Soo has a habit of letting ends of lines fall in a spine-tingling fade. Emotionally we are in the territory of Dylan’s “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”: harmonies are simple and melodies anthemic.”
– Clive Bell, The WIRE (review of ’10 Days Butterfly’)Kim Doo Soo
Kim Doo Soo is the deepest and most introspective of Korea’s acid folk singers with songs telling tales of political oppression, alcoholism, suicide, and a ten-year period of mountain seclusion. Kim Doo Soo has been active since the 80s and his first record ‘시오리길/A Long Way’ was released in 1986 on the Korean label Seorabul Record. He first came to the attention of the west via Damon & Naomi’s International Sad Hits compilation in 2006. He has also released records via Japanese label PSF and the UK’s Blackest Rainbow.
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.
His music was used in a film called Angkor Wat (though the story had nothing to do with the temple, or Cambodia) which screened at the 2012 Jeonju Film Festival. I remembering enjoying the film, as well as drinking makkolli with Kim Doo Soo and the director Park Sang-hun after the film, but it seems to have vanished without trace, even from the Kmdb. I wonder what sort of audience he has here in Korea these days – I suspect it may be difficult to find venues for what used to called “underground” music.
Interesting! Thanks for the info. I’m looking forward to his London appearance (I missed his previous one) this month tremendously.