ELECTROACOUSTIC AND IMPROVISED MUSIC
FROM KOREA
Celadon is the
name of a new music label based in Seoul, Korea that is focused on the areas of
improvised electroacoustic and free non-idiomatic improvised music. The goals of the label are to record
and release collaborations between cutting edge experimental musicians based in
Korea as well as collaborations between these musicians and musicians from
outside Korea. While the aim of
the label is the release of duos and other groupings, strong solo efforts from
musicians based in Korea may also be released as warranted. Celadon plans to showcase the best in
experimental music emerging from Korea for the purpose of raising the local and
international profiles of musicians based in the country. As a small label, Celadon plans to
produce one or two recordings a year but only ones deemed worthy of
release. Celadon features a gatefold
cardboard design for compact discs and no plastics in view of environmental
concerns. Proceeds from the sale
of the recordings go directly to the musicians. Only the final 100 sales of each release will be used to
defray the costs of printing.
The name of the
label is in tribute to the singular history and tradition of Korean ceramics, particularly
that of the Koryo Dynasty from around 1050 A.D., featuring a hazy green glaze
known as pisaek,
which is reproduced today in the kilns of Ichon, in Kyung-gi Province south of
Seoul. Korean celadon is humble,
relaxed, organic and unpretentious, all the while being highly attractive. The artwork for the CDs on the label is
an attempt to reduplicate this mood by evoking a sense of Korean aesthetics
through the use of real organic images, sometimes ancient, sometimes modern,
and occasionally both. The primary
emblem for the label is a reproduction of Korea’s most important Buddha image
from the Sukkoram Grotto in Kyungju, capital of the Shilla Kingdom, which
reigned until 935 A.D., and currently one of the ten most important UNESCO
cultural heritage sites in the world.
The Celadon music label is dedicated to the Korean ceramicists who were
kidnapped by the Japanese after the invasion of 1592 and brought to Japan to
inaugurate the Japanese ceramics industry.
JASON KAHN AND RYU HANKIL—CIRCLE
Celadon, a new
label focused on electroacoustic and improvised music from Korea, is proud to
offer its first release, a double CD recording from Jason Kahn and Ryu Hankil
called “Circle.” As one of
Switzerland’s preeminent experimental improvisers specializing in percussion
and analogue synthesizer, Jason Kahn needs very little introduction. For many years, he managed his own
label, Cut, which released a number of significant recordings in the field of
electroacoustic improvisation, including groundbreaking works by Jason
Lescalleet, Ellen Fullman, and Sean Meehan, as well as Kahn’s collaborations
with Toshimaru Nakamura under the rubric, Repeat. In addition, he has recorded with
fellow Swiss collaborators, Günter Müller and Norbert Möslang, including seven
releases from their Signal-to-Noise tours from 2006. Kahn has also worked with Tetuzi Akiyama and Utah
Kawasaki. Ryu Hankil is the leader
and principal organizer of the South Korean improvising collective, Relay, and
the owner and founder of the music label, The Manual. He has organized a number of shows in Korea with significant
international luminaries, like Mats Gustafsson, Eric M, Dieb 13, Billy Roisz,
Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Taku Unami, Taku Sugimoto, Noid, Klaus Filip, Kai
Fagaschinski and Mattin. He has
been in demand at festivals in Europe and Japan and is currently participating
in Otomo Yoshihide’s Far Eastern Network project. His novel musical invention is the use of amplified analogue
clockworks.
Having
initially met through the Signal-to-Noise tour, which stopped through Seoul in
March 2006, Ryu and Kahn continued their collaboration in July 2008 in Zürich,
Switzerland for this recording.
Kahn mixed and mastered the recording while Ryu did the production
design and photographs. The aim
for the design was a combination of linear abstraction through the organicism
of traditional Korean architecture.
The CDs themselves present a contrast of distorted, modern Korean
architecture to reflect the distinctive character of Seoul, a city where the
ancient and modern merge in contemporary daily life. “Circle” is their first recorded collaboration.
Jason
Kahn: percussion, mixer, contact
microphones, radio
Ryu
Hankil: clockworks, mixer, contact
microphones, devices
Available from
distributors or $20 postpaid worldwide shipping direct from the label, 20,000 won postpaid in Korea. Contact address: koreanimprov@gmail.com
HONG
CHULKI, JIN SANGTAE, AND KEVIN PARKS—音影
Celadon, a label focused on electroacoustic and improvised music
from Korea, is proud to offer its second release, a CD recording from Hong
Chulki, Jin Sangtae and Kevin Parks entitled “音影” or “Eum-young” in Korean pronunciation. The title is a kind of neologism involving an alteration of
the first character in “陰影,” which
also is pronounced “Eum-young” in Korean.
The original word, “陰影,” means “shades and shadows, and refers to “shades” or “chiaroscuro” in
Korean. The neologism involves replacing “shades”
or “陰” with “sound”
or “音,” which shares the same pronunciation in
Korean. Just as the word “chiaroscuro” refers to the contrast of
light and shade in the visual and cinematic arts, so to does 音影 suggest the contrast between sound
or noise and silence in the recording, the delicate balance of allowing both
sound and its absence to produce or suggest meaning in the performance and
recorded work.
Hong Chulki has been involved in
experimental music in Korea for well over a decade. He has worked in the noise duo, Astronoise, with his
frequent and long term collaborator, Choi Joon-yong. He has also recorded and performed with the Seoul Frequency
Group, a quartet that included both Hong and Choi. He has also recorded and performed with Seoul-based American
expatriate, Joe Foster, and the Relay series host and Manual music label owner,
Ryu Hankil. Recently, Hong has
traveled and performed extensively in Europe, Japan and other parts of
Asia. Jin Sangtae is the host and
program director of the Dotolim experimental music series in Seoul and has
frequently recorded and performed in the Relay series as well as other
events. He has performed regularly
in Japan and Europe and his solo CD, “Extensity of Hard Disk Drive” was
released on Choi Joon-yong’s Balloon and Needle label. Kevin Parks is an American guitarist,
composer, and electronic musician who has lived in Korea off and on since the
early nineties. This CD is his
third recorded effort after two highly acclaimed collaborations with Joe
Foster.
This trio collaboration was produced
during several recording sessions at the Dotolim studio in 2010. Parks edited, mixed and mastered the
recordings. Ryu Hankil carried out
the production design, and the photograph came from former Korean resident,
Shane Bondi, who captured an image of the detritus following a typical Korean
drinking scene, where oyster shells become makeshift ashtrays, the organic
fused with mass produced commercial product, the detritus itself suggesting or
mirroring that of the sonic detritus becoming a sound source for the recording
as merged with the organic sound of Parks’ guitar.
Hong Chulki: turntables
Jin Sangtae: computer hard drives
Kevin Parks: guitar and electronics
Available from distributors or $15 postpaid worldwide shipping
direct from the label, 15,000 won postpaid in Korea. Contact address:
koreanimprov@gmail.com
