#5175, New Music From South Korea
Hear new music from South Korea, using traditional instruments like geomungo, gayageum, piri, and saenghwang, and some that looks to pansori, the opera-style theater from Coreyah, Park Jiha, Leenalchi, and Jambinai, along with original music for guitars by Jiji.
Photo of Coreyah, courtesy of Korean Cultural Centre
Coreyah is a psychedelic Korean folk music group whose six members integrate traditional Korean instruments - daegeum flute, geomungo zither, and the janggu hourglass drum - with vocals, guitar, and percussion. The band’s name is a Sino-Korean homonym that refers to the inheritance of the past and also in Korean means “whale”—the group’s totem animal and good luck charm. And their music combines a variety of influences, including Anglo-American rock, Balkan folk of the Romani community, and genres from South America and Africa (Korean Culture.org). Sadly, we’ll not hear their spirit animal theme, “Whale of a Time”, but instead, the title track of their 2020 record, “Baksusori” which means "the sound of clapping" or "applause".
Korean composer and multi-instrumentalist Park Jiha creates new music for ancient traditional court instruments piri (the Korean double reed instrument), yanggeum (a hammered dulcimer with metal strings) and the saenghwang (mouth organ), – alongside flute, glockenspiel, bells, her voice and, most crucially, electronics. Listen to one of her immersive and patient soundworlds from her 2025 album, All Living Things.
Then, hear Leenalchi, a seven-piece pansori rock band from Seoul – pansori is the traditional opera-style theater of Korea – who sets this storytelling style to funky bass guitars as well as drums and keyboards to create “a hybrid music that is impossibly cool and sneakily catchy”, (Schaefer, June 2026). Hear the title track from their latest EP, Here Comes That Crow. Also, listen to mmm- heavier music from the Korean band Jambinai who play traditional instruments like piri, saenghwang, and gayageum (a 12-stringed zither), along with rockenroll instruments. Plus, music from the Seoul-baed duo Dal:um, who stretch the boundaries of Korea’s most well-known traditional string instruments: the gayageum and geomungo. That, and more. – Caryn Havlik
#5175, New Music From South Korea (First aired 8/25/26)
ARTIST: LEENALCHI
WORK: Here Comes That Crow [:59]
RECORDING: Here Comes That Crow EP
SOURCE: Luaka Bop
INFO: https://leenalchi.bandcamp.com/album/here-comes-that-crow
ARTIST: Park Jiha
WORK: Grounding [4:35]
RECORDING: All Living Things
SOURCE: tak:til
INFO: https://parkjiha.bandcamp.com/album/all-living-things
ARTIST: Park Sunju
WORK: Seoul Night, Stars [3:20]
RECORDING: Scattered Melodies Of The City
SOURCE: SAGART
INFO: Available at Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube, Amazon.com
ARTIST: LEENALCHI
WORK: Here Comes That Crow [2:48]
RECORDING: Here Comes That Crow EP
SOURCE: Luaka Bop
INFO: https://leenalchi.bandcamp.com/album/here-comes-that-crow
ARTIST: Jambinai
WORK: Prelude to Onda/Onda [9:23]
RECORDING: Onda
SOURCE: Bella Union
INFO: jambinai.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Coreyah
WORK: Baksusori [11:33]
RECORDING: Clap & Applause
SOURCE: Plankton Music
INFO: https://gogeum.bandcamp.com/album/clap-applause
ARTIST: Dal:um
WORK: Dot [3:57]
RECORDING: Dot
SOURCE: tak:til
INFO: https://dalum.bandcamp.com/track/dot
ARTIST: Jiji
WORK: Moonou [5:40]
RECORDING: Recorded for the New York Guitar Festival celebration of Julian Bream, May 2021
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRt3itScPcs
INFO: https://jijiguitar.com/
ARTIST: Sol Daniel Kim, Dayoung Yoon
WORK: Dream like Fantasy [2:53]
RECORDING: South Wave, North Wind
SOURCE: https://cellogayageum.bandcamp.com
INFO: https://classeek.com/concerts/concert-vod/cello-recital,207
