KCC Home Theatre: Fusion Gugk Series I

For four weeks, starting on 18th June on our YouTube channel, the KCC Home Theatre will present 4 performances by Korea’s leading “gugak” (national traditional music) artists, including Park Jiha, who was introduced to us at the K-Music Festival. The performances were organised by the National Gugak Centre and they were previously broadcast live online in March this year.

The first gugak performance is from Park Jiha, who is active both in Korea and internationally as a performer of traditional instruments such as piri (bamboo oboe), saenghwang (reed mouth organ), and yanggeum (dulcimer), and as a composer and producer. Her rendition of songs from her second album Philos at the K-Music Festival in 2019 received rave reviews.

Using no more than three instruments on each track,
Jiha’s music expresses as much emotion as words could convey

★★★★ The Guardian on Philos

Live Streaming: Thursday 7 pm, 18 June 2020

*Please note: this concert will be available to watch on our YouTube channel for two weeks after the live-stream.

• Programme
  Arrival
  Thunder Shower
  When I Think of Her
  On Water

Performer

Using traditional Korean instruments such as piri, saenghwang, and yanggeum, Park Jiha builds her unique soundscape by reinterpreting sound and space as an auditory sensation. She accumulated a wealth of musical experience as the leader and producer of the group 숨 [suːm] from 2008 to 2016 before beginning her career as a solo artist with the release of her first formal album Communion in November 2016. The following year she was invited to perform at WOMEX – the world’s biggest world music event – and at the official showcase of Classical: NEXT, garnering the attention of the world music industry both at home and abroad. Her albums Communion (2018) and Philos (2019), which were initially only released in Korea, were picked up by the German label Glitterbeat Records and subsequently re-released worldwide.

Park Jiha has received accolades not only in Korea but also internationally from the UK’s BBC and Guardian, and Pitchfork in America, among others, for forging a unique musical vision of her own.