K-Music Festival 2015

A festival of Korean music and performance across London through September 2015

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME!

The first K-Music festival broke new ground in presenting Korean music in London – the Evening Standard called it a festival that was “original, powerful and thrilling like nothing you have ever heard before.”

This year’s programme runs right through September, using some of the most exciting spaces in London, introducing major new voices to the city like SU:M and Jambinai, as well as presenting spectacular cabaret from The Barberettes and a range of rock music and Pansori stars and bringing to London new work from some of the great cultural groups like the National Gugak Centre and Samul Nori drummers Noreum Machi It is fascinating to discover how much Korean music today is shaped by other forces – there is a strong spiritual dimension, a tradition that stretches back across millennia yet always inspires new creation, and a profound appreciation of the visual setting in which music is created. There is a sense of theatre that radiates from every artist in this year’s K-Music festival.

We would like to thank the team at the Korean Cultural Centre, who have done so much to bring the full range of Korean art here, as we offer London a new opportunity to hear some of the most exciting elements in Korean music today.

David Jones/Serious Director, K-Music 2015

There has long been an interest in K-Music in the capital, although the ad hoc nature of seasonal performances meant that seeing K-Music in London was always a rare treat. However since 2013 the Korean Cultural Centre UK in partnership with Serious have collaborated to produce the K-Music Festival, providing audiences with the opportunity to see and hear live music from Korea on a regular basis. Developing relationships with leading venues, K-Music 2015 returns to Cadogan Hall and Scala and also sees performances at Sadler’s Wells, Rich Mix, Kings Place, The Forge and Southbank Centre.

The Festival has always strived to present the broadest range of artists and performances from the spectrum of Korean music artists who have only recently emerged on the world stage, regular festival favourites and supremely talented classical musicians and singers, K-Music 2015 really has something for all musical tastes.

I am grateful to our performers who have worked and rehearsed so hard preparing for the festival and to Serious for continuing to be the perfect partner for the event. I encourage you to join us for as many shows as you can and look forward to seeing you at a performance this September.

Kabsoo Kim Director, Korean Cultural Centre UK

SU:M

THE BARBERETTES Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September, 8pm The Forge, Camden Town

Tuesday 1 September, 7.45pm Purcell Room at Southbank Centre

with special guest Arthur Jeffes from Penguin Cafe

SU:M's name (pronounced "soom") translates as "breath" and it expresses the physical connection of these two women to the music they create - sometimes a soft sigh, sometimes a cry, sometimes a silent holding of breath. Jungmin Seo plays the gayageum (a massive 25-string zither) and Jiha Park plays wind instruments including the saenghwang (imagine the subtlest mouth organ, with 17 bamboo pipes).

They are an astonishing experience live - they've played Womex Cardiff and were seen at WOMAD last year. This opening concert of the K-Music festival of Korean music is their first-ever London concert.

The evening will begin with a short solo set by Arthur Jeffes, leader of Penguin Cafe, who will play music by himself and his father Simon Jeffes inspired by their travels in Asia.

This is a seated show

The Barberettes are a spectacular vocal harmony trio, a timeslip girl group who turn classics of the 50s and 60s inside out as well as creating their own theatrical music. Singing doo-wop in Korean and English, they only made their first album last year (in a retro homage to their inspirations, they called it The Barberettes Vol. 1) but this year they've already stormed SXSW and Midem.

These are their first UK shows, and they have chosen the spectacular setting of The Forge in Camden, a great cabaret space with a clutch of architectural awards and a 20ft-high "living wall" of plants, for their first two British shows.

This is a cabaret-style show

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music

NO BRAIN

JAMBINAI

Friday 11 September, 7pm The Scala, Kings Cross

Wednesday 16 September, 8pm Rich Mix, Shoreditch

+ support

In England, we know a bit about Korean art music and hold some preconceptions about K-Pop - but we don't know much about Korean rock music, and that's where Seoul's finest, No Brain, have built a huge following, playing over three thousand gigs across Korea in the last 15 years. Powered by raw vocals (Bull is the lead singer), razor guitars (Vovo plays guitar), sharp suits (Bogle plays bass) and a drummer called Dolly, they've won lots of Korean Music Awards, but never played London before. They're playing an early set- support hits at 7.30, they play at 8.30pm.

This is a standing show

Jambinai are the next thrilling instalment in the tale of new Korean music. They sculpt sound in a way that's drawn comparisons to Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky and the crystalline power of Sigur Ros - but they draw deep on Korean traditions. It's not just a stage full of amazing instruments - Korean fiddles, massive zithers blended with glorious lyrical guitars - but also a conscious sense of using the tradition to create something thrillingly new. They played Glastonbury last year, stormed Womad in July, where The Times said in a 4-star review “Jambinai impressed with their genre-blurring sound, applying traditional folk instruments to eruptive instrumental drone-rock reminiscent of Sonic Youth”. This is their first London show — catch them as Jambinai step out onto a world stage.

This is a standing show

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music

NOREUM MACHI Sunday 20 September, 8pm Kings Place, Kings Cross

THE PANSORI NIGHT Wednesday 23 September, 7.30pm Cadogan Hall, Sloane Square

During September, Korea will celebrate Chuseok, for many the most important festival in the calendar, a three-day holiday where families reunite, catch up and honour those who are no longer with us. To mark Chuseok, Korea’s Harvest Moon festival, the K-Music 2015 Pansori Night will be a celebration of UK-Korea friendship. Admission is free but booking necessary – so come along and enjoy some Chuseok treats!

There's a theatrical strand to a lot of Korean music and for more than 20 years, Noreum Machi have been creating a thrilling spectacle from virtuosic percussion, shamanic vocals and acrobatic dance.

Powered by gongs, Samul Nori drums and wind instruments like the piri (think of an oboe, but mellower), they work within the framework of Korean traditional performance, with a commitment to communicate their music to audiences worldwide. Noreum Machi will lead a workshop at KCCUK on September 21. For details, see the inside back cover.

This is a seated show

The Pansori Night will bring together six talented performers for an evening of music, dance and song with a contemporary twist. Pansori is a form of vocal story-telling that reaches back centuries — the stories sung are often comic, with a Chaucerian comedy to them, but they are also more than just bawdiness, and can be romantic, sad and emotional to boot. Rising pansori talent Sang-il Nam will be joined by Aeri Park, one of Korea’s leading female pansori performers. Aeri Park will also perform with ‘Poppin’ Hyunjoon, who takes breakdance moves and blends them with traditional rhythms. Our three stars will also be joined by Bae Reon, playing the ajaeng - a seven-stringed instrument, percussionist Kye-youl Jun accompanying the pansori with the janggu (Korean drum) and traditional dancer Ji-sun Choi.

This is a free seated show – please apply for tickets in advance

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music

KOREAN NATIONAL GUGAK CENTRE

Organised by

Supported by

Wednesday 30 September, 7.30pm Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells

Free events at Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) across September A Samul Nori workshop at KCCUK at 7pm on Monday 21 Sept which looks at Korean drumming, hosted by Noreum Machi A Pansori workshop at KCCUK at 7pm on Tuesday 22 Sept, hosted by the rising talent Sang-Il Nam, which gives the opportunity to develop an understanding of traditional Korean vocal story-telling before the Cadogan Hall concert the next day.

Rising Stars K-Classics concerts – free concerts at KCCUK by emerging Korean musicians whose careers are currently based in Britain.

www.kcc.org.uk Venues The Korean National Gugak Centre is one of the great arts companies of Korea, and this performance concentrates on Sanjo - that's a style of instrumental music accompanied by a drum and sometimes by dancers, starting slowly and gathering speed, with a structure that allows for virtuosic improvisation. This evening shows off some of the great traditional instruments of Korean traditional music such as the geomungo (large zither), daegeum (transverse flute) and haegeum (Korean fiddle). This is the last date on the group's European tour, and provides a fitting conclusion to the K-Music Festival.

This is a seated show

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music

Purcell Room

King’s Place

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX

90 York Way, N1 9AG

The Forge

Cadogan Hall

3-7 Delancey St, NW1 7NL

5 Sloane Terrace, SW1X 9DQ

Scala

Lilian Baylis Studio

275 Pentonville Road, King’s Cross, N1 9NL

Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN

Rich Mix

Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK)

35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA

1-3 Strand, WC2N 5BW

Tuesday 1 September

SU:M

with special guest Arthur Jeffes from Penguin Purcell Room at Southbank Centre

Cafe

Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September

THE BARBERETTES The Forge, Camden Town

Friday 11 September

NO BRAIN

+ support The Scala, Kings Cross

Wednesday 16 September

JAMBINAI

Rich Mix, Shoreditch Sunday 20 September

NOREUM MACHI Kings Place, Kings Cross

Wednesday 23 September

THE PANSORI NIGHT Cadogan Hall, Sloane Square FREE CONCERT

Wednesday 30 September

KOREAN NATIONAL GUGAK CENTRE Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells

For information and bookings, see serious.org.uk/K-Music