Park Jiha - The Gleam [Glitterbeat / Tak:til Promo]

Released via the Glitterbeat subsidiary Tak:til on February 25th, 2k22 is "The Gleam", the third full length album created and conceived by widely praised and critically acclaimed Korean composer Park Jiha who comes at us with a set of eight new pieces rolled out of pretty much exactly 50 minutes total playtime on this one. Originally created as special performance piece for an event to be at the Museum San in Wonju, South Korea and especially inspired by interaction of light and architecture in its so-called Meditation Hall Park Jiha's main and probably most apparent approach to the composition of "The Gleam" are textures and textural movements created on Korean instruments like piri, saenghwang and yanggeum alongside the more common glockenspiel which fall together in a spatial, minimalist manner forming a solitary sonic dimension paying homage to nocturnal Jazz Noir and skeletal DarkJazz as well as somewhat inward-looking Deep Listening Music, partially adorned with a slightly folksy or better naturalistic touch especially prevalent in bits like "Light Way" or the even more sparkling and joyful waves of the subsequent "A Day In..." whereas the, despite its fully acoustic nature, quite intense "The Way Of Spiritual Breath" is almost touching base with PostRock and the crystalline and well dreamy "Nightfall Dancer" might even resonate with fans of Contemporary Classical x (Neo)Classical music just to name a few. Deep.