Kang Tae Hwan - Tokebi (1991)
Kang Tae Hwan is a Korean saxophone player known to be a torch-bearer of the avant-garde in Korea, taking after the hojok player Kim Seok Chul. The reason why I have posted this album is because it is one of the few recordings that features Kim Seok Chul, who appears on the second track, "Eien (Eternity)." I find it especially important to share because these recordings have become increasingly hard to come by, both physically and digitally.
The music has a very shamanic spirit, and though some call it "free jazz," the moniker being the most convenient analogue, I think it belongs in a league far beyond that. The roots of the performances on this album lie in the ritualistic folk music tradition of Korea, a tradition that Kim Seok Chul fully lived and understood.
The cries of the saxophone and hojok are free-wheeling, and utterly alien to modern understanding. Their setting is primordial, and they crackle like burnt offerings to a history of mankind that has been lost but not forgotten.
The music has a very shamanic spirit, and though some call it "free jazz," the moniker being the most convenient analogue, I think it belongs in a league far beyond that. The roots of the performances on this album lie in the ritualistic folk music tradition of Korea, a tradition that Kim Seok Chul fully lived and understood.
The cries of the saxophone and hojok are free-wheeling, and utterly alien to modern understanding. Their setting is primordial, and they crackle like burnt offerings to a history of mankind that has been lost but not forgotten.
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