As October approaches, it’s time to start looking forward to what has become one of the mainstays of the Autumn cultural calendar: the K-Music Festival. This year, there’s an enticing mix of new names, familiar names, and new collaborations, and the genres stretch from the contemporary classical via ambient and electronic music to the latest in world and fusion music. Some of the artists will challenge you, others will welcome you with a familiar embrace, and all of them should provide some serious rewards and enjoyment.
One of the festival’s greatest selling points – the fact that many of the performances will be of completely new music – is also possibly a weakness. In the always busy October and November diaries, which of the events on offer are the must-sees? You simply cannot tell in advance. Although your favourite artist’s past performances might provide some guide that you’ll be in for a treat this time round, can you be sure that their latest work is going in a direction you will like? Conversely, artists whom you have decided to deprioritise in the past might now be exploring new sounds that will very much appeal to you. As an example: over the years we have been super-enthusiastic about Jambinai‘s music, but more recently have been finding their live performances increasingly unpalatable, and after their 2023 performance, which pushed volume and lighting effects way beyond comfortable levels, I vowed to only to listen to them in recordings thenceforth. But people tell me that I was wrong to stay away from their sister band No Noise’s 2024 K-music appearance with Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra, so I’ll give Jambinai’s 2025 collaboration with the London Contemporary Orchestra a try this year. I’ll still take along earplugs and a blindfold just in case (particularly as the venue warns of the likeilhood of strobe lighting effects). It’s at times like this when you really want a trailer that gives you an accurate indication of what to expect. The concert will be opened by the folk duo Dal:Um, who we have enjoyed listening to in previous years.
Similarly, when we first looked at the 2025 programme, we had a double-take at the plans for the opening concert. While we are not afraid of being challenged by a performance, listening to video clips promoting cellist Okkyung Lee‘s appearances at Cafe Oto have in the past made us reluctant to make the trip to Dalston to see her live. But when the KCCUK alerted us to the launch of her new album earlier this month, a quick listen on our favourite streaming platform convinced us that her concert at Kings Place is definitely worth exploring, particularly as the event is also a collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell. Expect, maybe, some trance-like electronica, some sounds reminiscent of Steve Reich, but most of all expect the unexpected.
We also have other new collaborations this year. Violinist / vocalist Alice Zawadski, whose K-music meeting with Hyelim Kim was one of our musical highlights of 2017, will be playing with the Korean trio Hilgeum – who play gayageum, geomungo and haegeum. This new collaboration is supported by the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, where the four musicians showcased their work at the end of August this year. Expect the programme to include work from Hilgeum’s 2022 album Utopia as well as several collaborative pieces including Gathering, a “brand-new work that emerges as a musical prayer for the modern world”.
We’ve been lucky in London to have experienced many premieres of Donghoon Shin‘s music (see LKL’s archives for details). Most recently was the UK premiere of his cello concerto. This year, we will be hearing the world premiere of his piano concerto, performed by its dedicatee Seong-Jin Cho. The concert is a great opportunity to taste two other world premieres commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra from other composers, as part of the LSO Futures programme.
We experienced Park Jiha‘s All Living Things earlier this year during her album launch tour, so we know what to expect: music that is immersive, peaceful and uplifting as she meticulously builds layers of sound with tape loops and echoes while playing solo on one of the many instruments she has mastered. Her performance down in Bristol earlier this year was truly memorable, and we hope the Rich Mix has fixed their noisy air conditioning system since we were last there so that it doesn’t distract us from Park’s ethereal and atmospheric music.
Gray By Silver first came to the attention of K-music followers during the online-only 2020 festival: a tantalising introduction to their music but not a substitute for hearing them live. We managed to miss them when they showcased tracks from their albums Eternal Gray and The Song of Ethnic at the KCC last year – the event was a casualty of the diary clashes that bedevil the autumn Korean cultural calendar in London. But this year they will be playing in the Albert Hall’s club-like Elgar Room, where Lee Heemoon played a few years ago. It’s difficult to categories Gray By Silver’s music: there are elements of jazz (pianist HanBin Lee has a number of influences but I can definitely hear some Keith Jarrett among them), but there are also folk elements, while the inclusion of a daegeum in the instrumental lineup brings an hint of the traditional Korean soundworld into the mix. Over the top, HanYul Lee’s haunting vocals add an extra dimension. This year they’ll be presenting music from their third album, Time of Tree. I’m anticipating that this gig, which is in collaboration with the EFG London Jazz Festival, will be one of the successes of this year’s K-music.
Also in collaboration with the Jazz festival is Won Il’s Dionysus Robot. My experience of Won Il’s previous performances in London, whether as part of the small fusion group Baramgot at the South Bank, at the helm of the National Orchestra of Korea in the Barbican, or collaborating with a contemporary choreographer and opera director in Kingston’s Rose Theatre, means that I’ll move heaven and earth to get to this one. Whatever else might potentially be in the diary on the same night, this is the performance to go to: apart from Won Il’s music we can expect a noted drag artist, video projections, an homage to Nam June Paik and an experience unfolding as an ecstatic shamanistic ritual. Clear your diary for this!
- Okkyung Lee with Mark Fell | WED 1 OCT
- JAMBINAI with London Contemporary Orchestra | SUN 5 OCT
- Hilgeum with Alice Zawadzki | SAT 18 OCT
- Park Jiha | WED 22 OCT
- Won Il’s Dionysus Robot | FRI 14 NOV
- Gray by Silver | SAT 15 NOV
- Seong-Jin Cho Donghoon Shin premiere | THU 20 NOV
To help you in intuiting what to expect, the KCCUK has put together a spotify playlist of some of the K-music festival artists’ past work. Enjoy!
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