Deliverance from the Humdrum... (with Apologies to Fans of Madonna)

I am still in "Wow" mode, having just arrived home after seeing Paul Metzger live in concert at Cafe Oto in East London. Oto, which regularly for several years has featured the likes of Joe McPhee, John Tchicai, and The Sun Ra Arkestra, has surely by now earned the title of London's Premier Venue for Experimental Music. Tonight's concert, featuring an obscure but brilliant musician, has certainly confirmed that for me.

Metzger uses a modified banjo, strummed, picked with a plectrum or fingers, and bowed(!), to produce improvisational, trance-like, altered ragas. Tension and release are deployed via dynamics, rhythmic excitement, cleverly developed repetition, and subtle fills. He is a masterful musician who absorbs the listener through his own absorption in the music, and control of musical narrative. I recommend his album Deliverance, which can be sampled at Amazon UK. It is improvised and thus rough-edged as one might expect, but the lengthy tracks demonstrate the communication of musical ecstasy of which Metzger is capable.


I had the slightly surreal experience during the post-concert taxi ride home of hearing Madonna on the radio. It was as if the curtain had been replaced, obscuring a world of wonder and leaving me stranded in a blandly humdrum, colourless world. Viva Paul Metzger and those few like him, who can draw back that curtain for us, for a fleeting moment.

Byungki Hwang - Musical Dynamo from South Korea

Underlying the rich variety of traditional musics worldwide is a variety of aesthetics and of purpose. Stylistic factors can have cultural, even philosophical roots and, although understanding this web of cause and effect is primarily the job of the musicologist, the amateur music-lover's experience of listening to music can surely be enhanced by some well-chosen contextual information. I'm grateful therefore to the issuers of the five book-and-CD volumes of Byungki Hwang - Kayagum Masterpieces, which document the work of an important South Korean composer and musician. Each of the sets combines fascinating music with beautiful B&W photography and an unusually rich and thoughtful set of notes (be aware, though, that all the sets have most of their notes in common).


The kayagum is an indigenous Korean zither, with close relatives in other Asian countries (e.g. Japan's koto, with which it shares a Chinese ancestor, the zheng). The accompanying notes refer to yet another zither, China's qin, with its playing tradition, dating back to Confucius, encouraging of introspection - to "please the mind, not the ear". There's certainly an introspective quality to much of this music, which may strike unfamiliar ears as stark minimalism. A meditative approach to listening is richly repaid, however. Hwang writes about the importance of the decay of a single plucked note, and how this arises from the Oriental philosophical aesthetic of man acting in accordance with nature ("The philosophy of the Orient is predominantly mystic."). Parallels are drawn with the spaces left in traditional Oriental paintings. Plenty of food for thought then, but the music is of course paramount...

Hwang is an accomplished musician who has been highly influential in the resurgence of the kayagum since the post-war emergence of South Korea, from the shadow of Japanese imperialism. He offers a great variety of sounds and styles across, and within each of, the five volumes. Both folk- and court-music traditions are drawn upon in his compositions. Strings are plucked, strummed, arpeggiated, lengthened for tonal variation and vibrato, and the body of the kayagum is used for percussive effects. The instrument is played solo, in combination with other Korean traditional instruments, and with voice. The results range from the traditional-sounding, meditative music described above, to an occasional verging on the avant-garde, with much in between.

This series is a feast for music-lovers, and should not be missed by anyone with an interest in Oriental music. Sound samples are available from Byungki Hwang's site. The discs are available, along with many other great South Korean cultural products, from the Seoul Selection bookstore.

Jazz Meets... Gently Radical Theology?

Elise, by Norwegians Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Håkon Kornstad, is a celebration of a religiously inspired folk music tradition, and of family. That family is the eponymous Elise Flaten, whose vintage, unaccompanied recording of a simple hymn is heard on track 1 and sets the tone for what follows. The hymn, set to a folk melody, is one of a body associated with a bygone breakaway religous movement in Norway, whose philosophy of simplicity rebelled against the mainstream middle-class church. The remaining tracks are a minimalist Jazz interpretation of that hymn tradition, and by extension that philosophy and way of life. The music is heartfelt and gently radical, like the tradition that inspired it.



This is lovely stuff, slightly challenging at times, but well leavened with beauty and simple, genuine expression. Sound samples are available at Amazon.

Folk Music for the Ages

Folk Roots, New Routes is a meeting of two consummate artists who came out of the English folk tradition. Davy Graham was a highly eclectic and original guitarist, drawn to Jazz, US folk and Eastern music. Shirley Collins had quite simply one of the most beautiful, crystalline voices ever recorded (and it's interesting to note that prior to making this recording she accompanied Alan Lomax on a folk song collecting trip to the Southern United States). This mid-60's collaboration, rooted in the English folk ballad tradition, but taking in the influences mentioned above, is one for the ages.


Everything here is excellent, but some special moments for me are "Love is Pleasin'", which will move anyone who has ever lost a love; "Rif Mountain", an Eastern-flavored solo feature for Graham; and last but not least "Bad Girl", in which the words "cold as the clay" (when we realise that the protagonist is dead) never fail to send a shiver down my spine.

One of the highlights of recorded music, full stop.

EDIT: Sound samples from Amazon.com.

Blue Note Obscurities Part 1: Some Other Avant-Cool Stuff

Blue Note is an iconic record label, like Motown or Sun, and people who get into Jazz can hardly fail to discover it. The label in its lengthy heyday featured a phenomenal and stylistically varied roster of talent, but runs of albums in the Hard Bop style by the likes of Grant Green, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Jimmy Smith and Lee Morgan have come to define its signature sound for many. There is plenty of relatively obscure, but hardly less brilliant, music waiting for those curious enough to dig a little deeper into the catalog.



Some Other Stuff by composer and trombonist Grachan Moncur III is one such gem. Featuring a superb roster of Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Cecil McBee, it is part of a series of 1960's albums on Blue Note that explored what was known then as the New Thing: the Avant Garde Jazz style godfathered by Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. The record contains four lengthy renditions of Moncur originals, which are explored in an unhurried, cool-toned yet exciting manner. It's highly original, with plenty of great moments, and it still sounds incredibly fresh and vivid.

Highly recommended for adventurous listeners.

A Tragic, Noirish Korean Whodunnit, for Mothers Everywhere

Bong Joon Hoo's Mother is a superb new film that scratches at the dark underbelly of South Korean society. The story centers around the titular mother and her mildly retarded son (there's a suggestion that her attempt years earlier at double suicide caused the retardation). A young girl is murdered after he is seen following her - he is arrested and, infinitely suggestible, he confesses. Cue mother's determined attempts to prove his innocence, which take us on a twisty, unpredictable path through some dark territory as we learn about the girl's life and the field of suspects grows.



Mother is currently available only in Korean DVD and Blu Ray editions. The (Region 3) Special Edition DVD, available here, has a top-notch print of the film and I recommend it to those DVD buyers who would prefer not to wait for a local edition (which will surely happen, given the quality of the film).

Those who have seen this director's Memories of Murder, a similarly dark opus, will know this film is not to be missed!

EDIT: This film is now available in various BD and DVD editions around the world, which may be cheaper than the Korean edition referred to above.

The Life of Chikuzan

Masahiro Shinoda is one of Japan's heavyweight film directors - I've recommended his films in this blog before. I recently enjoyed his film Chikuzan, about Chikuzan Takahashi, one of Japan's most renowned folk musicians. Chikuzan was blind from the age of two, and the film documents with pathos and humor his hardscrabble existence as a traveling musician. It features many strong female characters, and plenty of louche males - the women in Chikuzan's life are shown ultimately to be his salvation. There's plenty of gorgeous cinematography and fascinating music, and lovers of Asian traditional music or art-house cinema will not be disappointed.



Asmik's Japanese Region 2 DVD has an excellent visual presentation of the film, as is typical of Japanese DVDs. English sub-titles are available. Note that Chikuzan is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, which means you may need to adjust a widescreen television (by selecting size 4:3) in order to view it correctly at home. The DVD is available from HMV Japan.