On October 13, Global arts Live presented a virtual concert by the Korean quartet Black String. This extraordinary group works in the traditions of Korean music, rock and jazz, producing both composed and improvised music. Of course, we can’t tell what is composed and what is improvised, and it doesn’t matter. As Dave Brubeck told me “Composition is selective improvisation”.
Yoon Jeong Heo (the group’s leader) played the geomungo, a traditional instrument perhaps three feet long with frets bridges and six strings, played with a pick like a rod. Jean Oh played an electric guitar with three of the strings removed. Aram Lee was on daegeum (bamboo flute), the yanggeum (a hammered dulcimer) and a metal horn that was, I believe, a senap. Min Wang Hwang played janggu (an hour-glass shaped drum) and Western drums, sitting cross-legged on the platform, and sang.
The concert opened softly and delicately with a song called Karma. Ms. Heo played the geomungo very slowly and Mr. Lee played the daegeum quietly with sustained tones – a gorgeous sound! Then Mr. Hwang begin singing on long, sustained vowels so that it was unclear if he was singing words or a sort of vocalese.
When Ms. Heo switched to a jumpy mood. Mr. Lee followed and Mr. Oh and Mr. Hwang joined on guitar and drums, respectively. The quartet reached a mild frenzy in a rock style, but soon calmed into a sort of smooth jazz without a lead. Absolutely marvelous!
Mr. Hwang sang from time to time, presumably in Korean, sometimes on a frenzied, staccato monotone, sometimes wailing, sometimes sounding like a Noh actor. What was he saying? What did the lyrics to this strange, wonderful music mean?
Sometimes even the geomungo was a staccato monotone, while the flute was played delicately. The tone of the music rose and subsided tidally. Some passages that were so slow that they seemed to have no time signature. When there were no drums, the music had that floating quality we find in Arabic music. All songs were written by Black String except for one, Exit Music, which was written by Radiohead.
The concert was very well videoed, simply, with evocative lighting on the musicians’ light shirts or jackets, with a void behind them.
There were a few elements to the concert I didn’t really dig, when the music was very rock influenced and that delicate geomungo was reduced to pounding. Still, the concert was brilliant. Black String fuses tradition with progressive sounds and their music is mysterious and mesmerizing.
Author: Steve Capra
