An interesting double bill coming up at the end of January, as Park Jiha returns to London following her appearance at the 2019 K-music festival. LSO St Lukes is a better venue than Rich Mix: you’ll be able to get a better impression of Park’s other-worldly sounds in a more natural acoustic and without the distractions of noisy air conditioning.
While Park was over in London for K-music, the Barbican seized the opportunity of persuading her to perform her composition ‘The Way Of Spiritual Breath’ on live yanggeum with recorded industrial soundscapes in the Barbican Members Lounge.
Nice.
Wacław Zimpel + Park Jiha
Friday 31 January 2020, 19:30
LSO St Luke’s | 161 Old St | London EC1V 9NG
Tickets £17.50 – £20 | Book tickets
Two instrumentalists from different sides of the globe present atmospheric approaches to traditional sounds in contemporary contexts in this double-bill line-up.
While his main instrument is the clarinet, Zimpel also employs the use of organs and the khaen (a proto-harmonica from Laos), creating a knotty bed of interlocking notes over which his clarinet soars. The result is a distinct offering of contemporary minimalism, with echoes of Moondog, Terry Riley and John Coltrane.
It’s a sonic environment not a million miles away from the one created by South Korean composer and instrumentalist Park Jiha. She breathes new life into ancient instruments, performing on piri (a cousin of the oboe), yanggeum (hammered dulcimer), and saenghwang (mouth organ). With them, she combines Korean traditional music, jazz and contemporary classical to create hypnotic and occasionally frenzied compositions.
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.