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and insist that they might move on again musically for their sec- ond or third album.
Whilst mostly instrumental, there are a few songs in the Jam- binai repertoire. I ask what they are singing about. As the main lyricist, Kim replies. “Mostly the lyrics talk about the present day. What we are wondering and what we are worried about. For example one song has lyrics about a young man of our generation living in Seoul. He has a dream [for the future], but over time he is losing it. In another song I speak about pollution, about the destruction of nature.”
Having spent the whole conversation studiously avoiding any mention of the ubiquitous Gangnam Style on the premise that my interviewees must be sick of it being every Westerner’s sole refer- ence point for Korean music, Lee brings it up himself. “After the Psy effect,” he says, referring to the performer behind what became the most viewed YouTube video ever, “many people know about K-pop. But K-pop and our music is totally different. It’s new music for rock reviewers and it’s very different.”
T Jambinai
Just a fortnight before Womex, the group were showcasing in Seoul at Mu:Con. There they spoke with Steve Lillywhite, the English producer who has worked with U2, Peter Gabriel, the Pogues and many others. “It’s not news yet, but Steve Lillywhite wants to work with them,” I’m told. “He is interested in their music so he proposed a meeting some time back, but the schedule didn’t really work together.” Lillywhite has since turned his atten- tion to Korean electronic duo Glen Check, but a collaboration with Jambinai remains on the cards. “Jambinai is not a group following the trend,” he told them, “they are making the trend.”
he organisation responsible for much of the growing appreciation for Korean music internationally is the Government-sponsored Korea Arts Management Ser- vice. As well as its excellent Into The Light compilation album series and involvement in the K-Music Festival
in London last year, it funded both [su:m] and Jambinai’s trips to Cardiff. The latter are a little cagey when I ask them about it, per- haps not wishing to appear artistically compromised or suggest they aren’t a financially viable proposition in their own right. “The Government? Of course they support. Not really a lot, just for some touring and then some international work,” they tell me. I muse that many musicians in the UK would gnaw off an arm for that kind of assistance, but I don’t say anything!
Jambinai’s album, Différance, is available on CD via www.far-
sidemusic.com, Paul Fisher’s admirable hub for all things East Asian and musical.
Both [su:m] and Jambinai are back in Europe in 2014, with the former lined up for Womad Charlton Park and the latter hav- ing a very prestigious UK festival date in the diary that I can’t yet tell you about. Tour dates for both will be available at
www.earthbeat.nl.
facebook.com/breathmusic2 facebook.com/jambinaiofficial
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Photo: Judith Burrows
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