Tuesday 1 April 2025, 7.30pm
“The beauty of Jiha’s work lies in the spaces she leaves to evoke imaginative moments in the listener” - The Guardian
Park Jiha, the acclaimed Korean composer/multi-instrumentalist, makes patient, immersive music; music that illuminates the essence and texture of the natural, living world.
On her fourth album, 'All Living Things' (out 14 February 2025), her mastery of Korean traditional instruments (the piri, saenghwang and yanggeum) is intricately woven with deeply personal compositions and a deft use of contemporary sonics. Terms like post-classical, ambient or even cinematic are useful, entry-level tags, but they only scratch the surface of this album’s shimmering, contemplative soundworld.
The album's first single "Blown Leaves" (out now) is a graceful soundscape with a pulsing synth, distant beats and wind-like melodies from Park Jiha's saenghwang (mouth organ). While built on minimalist musical strategies, the emotions are deep and resonant. The composition evokes a powerful sense of longing, followed by renewal. Park Jiha tells us that the song "pictures a state of maturity nurtured by colourful sunlight. It's an ode to the ending of a cycle. The blowing away of what remains to uncover a new wind of change."
Versatile and restless, elegant and pragmatic Basque musician who has an extensive discography with almost 20 albums released. As interested in composition as in improvisation, Joseba Irazoki has been leaving his mark on a heterogeneous amalgam of projects, adventures and intentions that have ended up freeing his most introspective and personal self in the works in which he has dared to sign with his first name. With them, Irazoki has opened wide a sincere and direct universe, neat and elaborate, rocked by the attentive study of tradition and experimentation with the six strings, but also in the avid search for a distinctive, a specific identity that the Basque musician has found by making use of his own resources. Thus based on imaginative guitars, on their ability to make loops that exude naturalness, as if they had always floated among us, in a frank, confident and exciting voice, and e and in the ability to corner great melodies. Joseba is a versatile guitarist, brave and sensible, immediate and, at the same time, full of admirable nooks and crannies. Always between composition, improvisation and experimentation, configuring a surprising and unclassifiable artistic proposal.
Parallel to his deliveries as "Joseba Irazoki", this artist has been developing a list of projects and collaborations with other musicians participating as a session musician and as a live guitarist in projects among which are: Nacho Vegas, Duncan Dhu, Mikel Erentxun, Rafa Berrio, Amateur, Petti, Rudiger, Rafa Rueda, Anje Duhalde. In addition, Joseba has been a member of the prestigious group Atom Rhumba and has toured and collaborated with international artists such as Terry Lee Hale, Barrence Whitefield, Damo Suzuki. On his list of record labels with which he has published are: Lucky kitchen, Creative sources, Glasvocht records, Important records, Con-V, Moonpalace records Hirusta records, Bidehuts, Brown interior music, Mascarpone discos...
From 2001 to the present day he has released a wide variety of albums that encompass instrumental, experimental and improvisation-based works—Tokian tokiko (2005), Olatuetan (2006), Pertsona (2007), Gitarra onomatopeikoa (2017), Ez-Nostalgia (2019)—, and others in song format: Irri eta solas (2004), Gizona zakur egin zen (2005), Pobre gara (2007), Euria ari du (2010)... His latest albums are signed as J.I.E.L(Joseba Irazoki eta Lagunak) I(2014) eta Zu al zara? (2018) and III (2021). On the other hand, he has also recorded two albums with Beñat Achiary and Julen Achiary under the name BASHOAN, paying homage to the American musician Robbie Basho, and was founder and composer of the groups ONDDO and ON BENITO.
