Memories from my Korea tour with PROJECT tHinG
Memories of the intense & very special recent collaboration in Korea still strong… Sending much love & gratitude to the PROJECT tHinG team for conceiving of this project, and then inviting me to be part of the it - thank you: Jonghwa Park (Piano) & Yoonjeong Heo (Geomungo) And of course thank you Dae-young Paul YOON & the Mage Management & Production - for setting up the tour & bringing me to Korea.
+ there is exciting news: Yoonjeong Heo will be a guest artist at Cité de la Musique in Paris in 2024, so European gigs for spring/summer 2024 are in the pipeline - interested promoters, feel free to get in touch.
The concept of PROJECT ’tHinG’ was to bring together 3 very contrasting instruments from 3 different eras: the ancient Geomungo (a classical Korean, 6-string zither, from 6th century), the classical Piano (18th century), and contemporary Electronics (which I’m performing). Our new trio has been named: Project ‘tHinG’. (t.H.i.n.G stands for “the Harmony in Gaon” - Gaon signifies ’the centre’, or ‘the middle way’ in Korean. So the philosophy behind this project is find unity between these 3 very different instruments, and to show that despite their cultural, historic, and sonic differences they can work together beautifully, and create inspiring new music together. A good example of how music can be a positive metaphor for other aspects of life.
FYI: The Geomungo is a very unique and idiosyncratic instrument, only 2 of the string can change pitch (with fret-board in the centre), the 4 other strings are played open, and strings are plucked with a very percussive bamboo stick (suldae). So it’s been a real education learning to write for it, and Yoon-Jeong has been very generous in helping make my ideas work.
