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/seriousmusicliveACT 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’
GuardianFull 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.