A Brilliant Collection Release from Jin Hi Kim
In a very large and very unique new collection from Jin Hi Kim, the artist demonstrates her collection of pieces in a way that lets you experience them both individually and as one complete set.
The pieces range from orchestrated works with lush instrumentation to singular instruments, giving you particular moods and bringing you in and out of her ever-expansive world, shimmering with thought, beautiful textures, and her element of spirit that seems to come into play when you listen fully.
Rather than just a particular record, this is an actual collection and is comprised of 52 pieces, each giving you a little bit of a different direction, inspiration, mood, feeling, and approach.
The record opens up with "Nong Rock," which is mainly comprised of strings that come together and give you these areas of fast and sort of spacious melodic approaches, mixed with bursts of intensity, breaths, and cinematic underbelly.
This piece is actually a great one to introduce the record with because you can get a feel for how she is able to put together both that smooth and semi-angelic sheen and polish, sound and texture, with those bursts of more aggressive and almost surprising segments.
A lot of these songs are not afraid to get intense at certain times.
The record has a bit of separation to it in terms of the inspirations and themes.
The first four tracks come, including the song I just mentioned, four pieces that were commissioned in LA just after the Rodney King riots.
Upon learning this, listening back lets you really understand more about why the pieces sound the way they do and why they boast these different ranges of emotion.
Meanwhile, there is a set of songs called "Nori" I through III, with each delivering its own vibe, and certainly blending in elements of jazz influence, oboes and other wind instrumentation, live percussion, and plenty more.
The drumming and percussion on these pieces in particular is absolutely outstanding and really helps the songs come to life in an almost theatrical sense.
Another theme throughout the record exists within a chunk of eight pieces starting with "Tilings," that most certainly experiment with some more of that almost filmic backbone, blended with cultural flair, beautiful instrumentation and performance, and all of it sort of wraps itself around you.
This set is one of my favorites on the record, as once again, there are these bursts of intensity that come through when you almost least expect them, but it also showcases how the songs kind of pull you into the moment with them.
A lot of these pieces are amazing at doing exactly that. They sort of put you in the moment, and you have a way of coexisting with them.
Again, this is over 50 pieces and is an absolutely gigantic span of work, released from Neuma Records exclusively through Bandcamp, and features an unprecedented 10 hours of incredible music.
What really hits about this collection is that it brings in all these different cultures by way of instrumentation, performance, interpretation, and tone.
I wish I could go through the entire release, but it's so much that you can't bottle it up into one write-up or article.
This is something that needs to be heard.
I took the time to listen to this throughout the course of almost 2 weeks.
This really helped me soak everything in for what it was. However, knowing what certain segments of the record were written about or came from really helps understand where, once again, the emotion behind some of the music was derived.
The release features liner notes pulled from Kim's memoir, Duality of Ancient Korean Roots and Western New Music. This does include tracks that were recorded live at venues from all around the world, from Carnegie Hall to Berlin.
There's so much culture and life attached to this record that it's undeniable.
All of these pieces really have that life of their own, and being able to understand where they came from helps you soak them in even better.
You can read a lot about that on Bandcamp or on the Neuma Records page for the release, both of which will be listed below.
I strongly suggest even reading this while you're listening.
Either way, there's so much to soak in here that it's almost unreal. Again, I took a good span of time to really take a lot of this record in, and you can too.
Start from the beginning and listen to maybe 6 to 10 songs at a time.
I found myself going back to a few just to catch certain kinds of vibes or some of the surprises that lurk around the corners once more.
All of it has this amazing sense of ups and downs in terms of emotion and intensity, all portrayed beautifully with performances that are absolutely breathtaking.
This is a whole different world. I would suggest checking it out with headphones on, as I would normally do in terms of anything that I feel like you can really soak in properly.
But if not, listening to it in the car is absolutely a must.
Being surrounded by these pieces is really the way to go.
So, take a deep dive into this record, and believe me, it's quite a deep dive. See what it does for you. I'm sure this will have a great effect on you, and you'll find yourself getting attached to certain segments or chunks of songs based on their output and soundscape.
Check this out now, and I'm sure you won't regret it. Remember, start from the top and work your way down; it's the best way to go.
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