Jazz Articles about Black String

About Black String

Album Review

Black String's karma must be good. The globally respected UK magazine Songlines awarded the South Korean quartet its Asia and South Pacific Award for Mask Dance (ACT Music, 2016), the band's potent debut. Critical acclaim for Black String's intoxicating blend of Korean traditional music and free improvisation, however, was universal, with invitations taking it all over the world, including four tours of the Americas. It may seem like an overnight success story, but the band led by geomungo player Yoon ...

Album Review

Black String: Mask Dance

Read "Mask Dance" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 3, 2017

The geomungo--the Korean six-stringed fretted zither--is one of the oldest string instruments in the world, the combination of paulownia and chestnut wood body and twisted silk strings dating to the fourth century. The geomungo is at the heart of Black String, an exciting quartet led by Yoon Jeong Heo, in whose hands this most traditional of instruments spans the centuries, embracing ancient rhythms and textures and aesthetics more akin to rock music. Aram Lee on daegeum, danso (bamboo flutes) and ...