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

Put on the circuit via the Glitterbeat Records offspring Tak:Til on June 14th, 2k19 is "Philos", the new album release by South Korean composer Park Jiha. Providing a menu of eight brand new tracks on this longplayer she, like on her 2018-debut "Communion", employs the sound of traditional Korean instruments once again only to fuse them with deep and floating electronic textures more related to the Western world and its traditions. Especially the opening tune "Arrival" exemplifies this approach in a thrilling way, presenting an intense, captivating composition somewhat meandering in between Post-PostRock, score and most pure naturalism whereas the follow up "Thunder Shower" employs more of a looped, folksy feel in its multilayered, slightly off kilter and somewhat baroque-reminiscing structure. "Easy" digs deep into the world of Spoken World with a poem written and read by Lebanese poet Dina El Sayed, "Pause" weighs in tender, intimate piano romanticisms over the course of 129 seconds and the title track "Philos" provides a hypnotic, trance inducing flow for all lovers of PostRock and Indietronica alike. Furthermore we see Park Jiha refer to urban environments with the title named "Walker: In Seoul" even though the music presented feels more like a late summer afternoon stroll at the ocean shore in its super melancholic attitude, "When I Think Of Her" slightly touches on (Neo)Classical composition and dramatic, and also kitsch-oriented, Ambient for being that one slightly questionable track on the whole album before "On Water" follows on a similarly peaceful path and gives us a dreamy, minimalistic, yet beauteous xylophone line as a main motif to follow into the land of dreams.