★★★★★ PAMS CHOICE in Korea 2010 WOMEX Official Showcase in Greece 2012 ROSKILDE FESTIVAL in Denmark 2013
WORLD MUSIC ENSEMBLE GEOMUNGO FACTORY
PHOTO BY EUNYOUNG KIM
Five-star rating ★★★★★ LONDON EVENING STANDARD
“Whatever you call it, it is original, powerful and thrilling. And certainly like nothing you have ever heard before.”
Simon Broughton Top of world music magazine
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GEOMUNGO FACTORY
What makes Korea so special is the way it respects its distinctive past, while staying at the cutting edge of technology and innovation – and if there’s one group that sums that up in music, it’s Geomungo Factory (which is pronounced Ko-mungo Factory).
The geomungo zither is over a thousand years old and you won’t fine an instrument like it anywhere else in the world. It has six silk strings and is played by hitting and pluking them with a short stick, giving it a deep, muscular sound, both rhythmic and melodic. Geomungo Factory have also created new instrument – the ‘Xylophone geomungo’, ‘the cello geomungo’ and the ‘electric geomungo’ with a wah-wah pedal. Like Konono No. 1 from Congo and Hanggai from Mongolia, Geomungo Factory sound ancient and contemporary at the same time.
Geomungo Facoty includes three geomungo players, Yoo Mi-young, Jung Ein-ryoung and Lee Jung-seok, who are all traditional players, plus Kim Sun-a, who plays gayageum, the plucked zither with 18 or more strings, which is more commomly heard in Korea than the geomungo.
“Most people think traditional music is boring,“ they say, “so we want to make geomungo music that we can share with people and is fun.”
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2014’ 07 / Canada Summer Tour 2013’ 07 / Amsterdam Roots Festival in Netherlands 2013’ 07 / Roskilde Festival in Denmark 2013’ 06 / Sommarscen Malmö Festival in Sweden 2013’ 06 / K-MUSIC FESTIVAL in London Cadogan Hall
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INTERVIEW FINANCIAL TIMES By David Honigmann (June 14, 2013 6:43 pm)
Seoul sensations
For the second summer in a row, the streets of London are filled with the sounds of Seoul. Last year, South Korea’s musical ambassador was the K- Pop and YouTube sensation Psy. His surprise hit “Gangnam Style” might almost have been an experiment to determine whether being sung in Korean would be a bar to global success for a song with a catchy chorus, cosmopolitan dance beats and a viral-hungry video.
This year, London is hosting the K-Music festival to give a wider picture of the music of the Korean peninsula: last night the National Orchestra of Korea played its first concert in the UK; later this week Ahn Sook-Sun, one of Korea’s officially designated National Living Treasures, brings pansori, a form of folk opera; and Seoul rock bands play two concerts at the Scala.
One of the most intriguing groups playing in the festival are Geomungo Factory, one man and three women who met as students in Seoul. The geomungo – pronounced with an initial hard G – is a six-stringed zither played while seated. Its strings are struck with bamboo sticks and its sounds never quite resolve into a single note. Like the west African kora, the geomungo is a centuries-old court instrument, and Geomungo Factory are reinventing the traditional repertoire.
They have constructed variant after variant – the cello geomungo, played with a bow; a portable version; an electric version; a xylophone geomungo. The interlocking patterns made by the instruments have prompted comparisons with Steve Reich, but, instead of Reich’s smooth shimmering pulse, Geomungo Factory have a more grainy texture and their rhythms are often angular and unsettling.
The band spoke to me from Seoul through their manager Sujin Lee. “The geomungo has a long history,” says Jung-seok Lee, “but not many people study it in Korea today. It is hard to learn and to play at a good technical standard.” But for him, the secret of the instrument’s attraction is plain. “Even though it’s hard, the style is epic!”
Their other instrument is the gayageum. “The right hand plucks, the left hand bends,” explains Sun-a Kim, who plays it. “It is a different style, like vibrato.”
It is flatter and less resonant than the geomungo, and plays the higher melodies. The band use the new instruments to push forward the geomungo repertoire. “For a long time we studied traditional music; now we compose and make our own,” says Jung-seok Lee. “We improvise together, discuss, play and chat. Writing it down is the very last thing.”
For all their love of traditional Korean forms, each member has differing tastes in western music, and their ambition is to synthesise the traditional and the exotic. The western model is most clearly heard on “Byeolgeumja”, which interpolates the melody from The Nutcracker’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” with the group’s leader Mi Young Yoo playing bell-like notes on a xylophone geomungo.
Sun-a Kim admires George Benson and Paco di Lucia – hence, perhaps, the flamenco coda at the end of “Jeong-jung-dong”. And Jung-seok Lee drops the names of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke.
This does not align them with their country’s most visible musical exports. “They’re not part of K-Pop,” says Sujin Lee, before adding, unconvincingly, “but they really enjoy it. Geomungo Factory make music and art. K-Pop is entertainment, it’s a very industrial product.”
Not so this group, despite their name. This is a factory in the Warholian sense of a workshop or atelier, not an assembly line. The idea they might sell some of the new geomungo variants produces shock. “Only for Geomungo Factory!” They are the only people in the world to play the cello geomungo or the electric or the xylophone geomungo. “Maybe some day,” offers Sujin Lee.
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CONCERT REVIEW
LONDON EVENING STANDARD
By Simon Broughton (June 20, 2013)
★★★★★
Five-star rating
The geomungo, a 1,000-year-old Korean zither, sounds like something from another world, says Simon Broughton
Tens of thousands of people in London have Samsung phones but apart from Gangnam Style, how many people have heard any Korean music? Not only one of the best bands from South Korea but one of the most interesting bands in Asia was playing in London last night, thanks to K-Music 2013.
Geomungo Factory — on their first trip to the UK — fuse ancient and modern like nothing we have here. The geomungo is a 1,000-year-old Korean zither, plucked with a stick. It is both melodic and percussive, with lots of tapping on the body of the instrument.
Sonically, it’s something from another world, like plucking a big elastic band — with lots of vibrato. That might sound unpromising — and the traditional music played in the first half is an acquired taste — but the new music that Geomungo Factory create is sensational. It is deeply Korean but it rocks, with the Californian overtones of Steve Reich or Captain Beefheart. Three of the musicians — Yoo, Jung and Lee — play geomungo and the fourth, Kim, plays gayageum, a more delicate plucked zither that adds something softer and more delicate to the texture.
But Geomungo Factory also bring in bowed geomungo, electric geomungo, glockenspiel and a musical saw to create a whole tapestry of sounds.
It might be world music, avant garde or heavy metal — but whatever you call it, it is original, powerful and thrilling. And certainly like nothing you have ever heard before.
11 TOUR INFORMATION
4 ARTISTS 2 STAFFS
Mi young YOO Ein ryoung JUNG Tour Manager Sujin LEE Jung seok LEE Sound technician Sun A KIM
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