London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

K-music 2020 online: Black String

Black String return to K-music in the second of the K-music Greats strand of the 2020 festival:

K-music Greats II: Black String

Saturday 7 November, 5pm
Watch at www.youtube.com/thekccuk or www.youtube.com/seriousmusiclive

Black String

ACT artists and masters of traditional Korean music and jazz Black String burst on to the London scene in 2011, their rise to the top saw them close K-Music 2019 to great acclaim in a show that was also performed within the EFG London Jazz Festival.

Their storming international debut Mask Dance (ACT) earned them a 2018 Songlines Music Award, their award ceremony performance being a true representation of ‘borderless contemporary Korean music’.

Black String’s performance, the second episode in this K-Music Greats series, will include their celebrated works Sureña, Exhale-Puri from their second album, Karma, which was showcased at their closing performance of K-Music 2019. This is an edited version of a concert produced by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation in 2020.

The band brings together East and West, with Yoon Jeong Heo on geomungo, (zither-like stringed instrument with bridges and frets), Aram Lee on daegeum (large bamboo transverse flute) and yanggeum (hammered dulcimer-like metal stringed instrument), Jean Oh on guitar and electronics and Min Wang Hwang on vocals and percussion to offer a fresh, new sound to audiences by presenting ancient tradition within a modern setting.

‘Black String play a riveting, hauntingly epic, sold-out show’
New York Music Daily

‘There are tricky time signatures, a nod of thanks to Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman for a guitar solo, and constant tonal shifts from the geomungo itself. Elegant and accomplished’
score-2score-2score-2score-2score-0 Guardian

Full online programme details are available at www.kccuk.org.uk/k-music and www.serious.org.uk/k-music

(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.

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