INTO THE LIGHT MUSIC OF KOREA 1

Vinalog is a world music group organized in 2003 consisting of four male musicians who all have vast experience in Korean music as well as in other genres of music. The Name “Vinalog” is the combination of two words “Vinyl” and “Analog”, representing the group’s philosophy pursuing a warm, rich contrasting the ‘digital’ world contemporary Koreans live in. Vinalog envisions creative music that is easily understood by the people of all ages of any region around the world.

KANG Eun-il is one of the most distinctive Haegum artists in Korea and is highly praised for her combining of traditional music with various genres. She is a musical pioneer who has established her reputation by her use of the Haegum to create 'crossover music.' Ms. Kang has performed both domestically and internationally with various world-renowned artists and groups, such as Bobby McFerrin, Luciano Pavarotti, Quincy Jones, Pat Metheny, NewYork Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Orchestra, Turkey National Orchestra, KBS Korean Traditional Music Orchestra, Yoshida Brothers, and Salta Cello. Representing Korea, she also actively takes part in 'The World String Festival' held in Japan. Having made tremendous contributions to the popularization and globalization of Haegum, she has inaugurated a whole new context for this versatile instrument. 

GongMyoung is the group enlarging their music with passion and idea for the world. In 1997 in Korea, when they first came out, their debut was reported with such words like “exceptional, unconventional” in the articles. Their music was considered “an unprecedented music” to Korean Traditional musicians. In their music, each one’s color meets together and creates the harmony. As you know from the preceding part, each person can play various instruments more than the instruments mentioned above. Especially, all of them play percussion parts, and this makes GongMyoung’s music full of vivid energy of rhythm. 

When seeing for the first time the twelve stringed Korean traditional instrument gayageum, some may think it is similar to the Japanese koto. Likewise, a person listening to the gayageum’s traditional musical style of sanjo for the first time may associate it with Indian raga. However, gayageum music and the instrument itself, with twelve bowstrings that elegantly conjure up natural sounds, are representation Korean music and instrument. Now, various performance and composition techniques are constantly being shown, and recently, a custom-fitted 25 string gayageum has been produced. But the gayageum will remain among Korea’s traditional instruments as the first one to come into a mind as being deeply symbolic of Korea’s musical traditions. Thanks to the efforts of gayageum master players, this instrument remains cherished even in a modern age. Among these masters, it is Hwang Byungki who has been made the subject of much reverent discussions. As a composer, performer and educator, HWANG Byung-ki is adored both at home and abroad, especially for transforming and innovating the way the gayageum is played. 

Yi Ji-young is the most representative gayageum player that continues to carry the tradition of korean performing arts - music, dance, and singing as well as contemporary avant-garde. Colleagues and critics alike consider her to be the most talented gayageum artist of our time whose music represents a perfect harmony of the emotionand the senses and her musical spectrum ranges from very traditional to very avant-garde elements. She is also known as the most important figure in the interpretation and performance of gayageum.She began to learn Korean traditional performing arts, such as gayageum, traditional song, and dance, at the age of five. Her musical experience in Korean traditional arts along with teaching Korean traditional music from young age has made her perform the greatest traditional music. She obtained both BA and MA in gayageum performance from Seoul National University and Ph.D. in Ewha Womans University. She was the first Ph.D. in gayageum performance in Korean music history.She was a notable soloist of the National Center of Korean Traditional Performing Arts from 1988 to 1993. In 1991, she became the youngest member of the ‘Jeongnongakhoe,’ the most prestigious Korean classical music ensemble in Korea, and she now is a Candidate for Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 23 ingayageum sanjo (solo instrumental folk genre) and gayageum byeongchang (folk song accompanied by gayageum).

KIM Jeong-seung plays daegeum for both traditional and modern music. KIM is a performer of the Traditional Music Troupe in the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, the youngest member in Jeongnong ensemble and a member of Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea. While actively involved in the preservation of traditional daegeum music, KIM is also recognized as a forerunner of new Korean music. He is known as the first musician to incorporate ‘Multiphonics’ and ‘Circular breathing’ into daegeum performances. KIM has been invited to many international music festivals, such as Berlin Contemporary Music Festival, Pacific Rim Music Festival, and Asian Composers’ League Music Festival as a soloist. 

Since their founding in 2000, Jeong Ga Ak Hoe has been concertizing widely throughout Korea, Europe and the United States, presenting their unique, one-of-a-kind performances of both Korean traditional music and novel pieces for Korean traditional instruments. Jeong Ga Ak Hoe’s eclectic and diverse repertoire has deep roots in the ancient Korean concept of Johwa (조화), meaning ‘harmony’ or ‘balance;’, and each performance is an expression of the transformative power that exists in music and nature.Jeong Ga Ak Hoe’s holistic approach has led them to explore the potential of new, and at times, unexpected artistic collaborations resulting in a new genre of emotionally compelling performance art, by utilizing the aesthetics of traditional Korean music as a catalyst to create a new, multi-dimensional, visionary theater.

Songs make people happier when they are happy and more sorrowful when they are sad. This is true of the music of Jang Sa-ik, whose songs inspire hope in life by, ironically, touching upon death.On a day in November in1994, about 400 people packed a small, 100-seat theater near Hongik University in Seoul. A man appeared on the stage. He was making his debut as a singer. He sang songs in his own unique style, which was neither popular music nor traditional Korean music. He was overwhelmed by bliss. He was happy because, at last, he found the answer to a question he had long asked to himself: "Why was I born?" He told himself: "Oh! I came into the world to do this."So he started the music life of the master vocal artist. The man who made his debut at a 100-seat theater has grown to now perform in the 3.000-seated Sejong Cultural Center for the Performing Arts and on stages in Japan, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles. Since the beginning, his public performances has been going on for more than a decade, and many of his concerts have been sold out.Jang maintains an earnest and unique vocalization and singing style wherever he performs. He started music pretty late in life. However, he was not in a hurry, was not preoccupied with popularity and tried to build his own music world. He enthralled his fans.

PURI has regularly appeared on numerous stages worldwide while searching for experimental sounds deeply grounded in Korean traditional music, and the present performance will attest to Puri’s continuous endeavor to fuse the particularity of Korean music with the universality of world music.The name of the group “PURI” is derived from a Korean word that means resolving knotty and discordant elements or situations and rendering them harmonious. In this suggestive name is registered and expressed Puri’s wish to engraft Korean traditional rhythm to the rhythm of contemporary popular music as well as to that of world folk music, thereby harmonizing these seemingly disparate musical traditions.Although initially launched as a group of professional percussionists performing works of their own creation, Puri has of late increasingly become more like a “sound group” engaged with the use of diverse sounds and musical instruments.In Puri’s music-making, a technical aspect is considered to be of primary importance not only because Puri believers that it should demonstrate on the world market flawless techniques befitting a professional performance group, but also because the vitality of the group will of necessity wither should its technical finesse not buttress its musicality. It is the group’s firm belief at the same time, however, that it never brings any music on the stage without (re)appropriating and (trans)forming the original or traditional work anew. For playing music “(re)created” in the style of Puri alone marks the point at which the inimitable characteristics of Puri/s music are to be sought.