Park Jiha - Communion [Glitterbeat / Tak:Til Promo]

Released in early March, 2k18 via the Glitterbeat Records sister label Tak:Til is "Communion", the latest album by Korean musician Park Jiha who is fusing the magic of Korean Folk and its traditional instruments like piri, saenghwang and yanggeum with Western influences and instrumentation in her music. Catering a menu of seven tracks within the albums 48 minutes playtime she, alongside fellow musicians Kim Oki, John Bell and Kang Tekhyun on the Western side of the instrument spectrum, creates a musical fairytale which surely incorporates both worlds musically, yet turning this amalgamation into something new and unique, opening with the timeless, ancient romanticism of "Throughout The Night", bringing on an innocent, folksy vibe with the "Accumulation Of Time" which builds up to a multilayered crescendo over time before falling back to pure yanggeum minimalism whilst the title track "Communion" is weighing in loads of obvious, spiralling Jazz influences and the following "Sounds Heard From The Moon" brings forth hammering vibraphone of varied dynamics and intensity accompanied by various crackles, faraway winds and a seemingly minor scale yanggeum motif for a calmer, solemn addition that transforms into another intense climax around minute five approx.. Furthermore "The Longing Of The Yawning Divide" tells tales of untouched meadows and ancient, folkloristic lifestyles of sorts in its overall Ambient-reminiscing structure, "All Souls Day" lives of an ever repeating harmonic pattern of meandering beauty and tenderness as well as its FreeJazz tendencies and the sax-infused final cut "The First Time I Sat Across From You" combines both the straightforward vibraphone approach as well as a calm, in parts even romantic yanggeum motif for a sweet closure. This is way beyond what one probably might refer to as World Music due to Park Jiha's provenance.