Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Black String, London, October 10
Korean experimental folk outfit Black String offered a rare opportunity to hear the chime of ancient instruments gracefully collide with modern sonic tools.
Photos by Nikolas-Kaan Yilmaz
Younjeong Heo (geomungo), Jean Oh (guitar/electronics), Aram Lee (daegeum) and Minwang Hwang (percussion/vocals) took to the stage of Kings Place on October 30, as part of London’s K-Music Festival 2024, creating a unique sonic palette with their century-spanning instrumentation. For this performance, they are joined by ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist Cassandre Balosso-Bardin, who adds bagpipes and other wind instruments to their delicate sonic equation. Their repertoire includes works from their upcoming studio album, Road of Oasis, set for release in 2025 on the Munich-based label ACT.
Their compositions are performed like jazz standards, with choreographed sections featuring motifs giving way to vast improvisational journeys. The ensemble have attributed this freeform influence to improvisational aspects rooted within traditional Korean music. This ancient tradition is on display within the breathtaking call-and-response solos between Hwang’s fast, rhythmic vocals and the instrumentalists.
These traditions are blanketed within an airy, digital fog emanating from Oh’s electronic soundscapes and innovative guitar playing. Oh uses a computer to manipulate samples to weave this ambience while simultaneously adding dashes of distorted guitar licks at just the right moments. His pedalboard features effects typically employed in shoegaze textures, effectively turning his guitar into an ambient soundboard when it isn’t spitting virtuosic solos.
When musicians manage to paradoxically combine elements from the past and present, an ineffable notion rises from the din – making an important statement about the history of sonic expression. By fusing folk with modern instrumentation and boundary-pushing philosophies, Black String’s performance is a journey into the ancient musical traditions of Korea, symbolically contextualised within its society’s present futurism. This synthesis amounts to a memorable amendment to the tapestry of contemporary world-fusion, delicately stitched into time by Black String.
