Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Kim Jin-Hi — The Jin Hi Kim Collection
(Neuma 236, 2024/2026, 9CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-10-24

The Jin Hi Kim Collection Cover art

Over the decades of her career in music, Jin-Hi Kim has operated in so many different realms and idioms that it’s impossible to distill down to concise statements, unless you just emphasize the variety. She’s perhaps best known as a player of the komungo (also written geomungo) Korean zither who is active in experimental fields of music. And while it’s probably true that most music labeled “experimental” isn’t actually experimental in a scientific sense, where new things are tried to see what happens, in Kim’s case, there are actual experiments, testing the parameters of instruments she’s designed herself. This massive collection totals nearly nine hours of music recorded between 1985 and 2024 and features a wide range of collaborators. Kim contributes komungo (both acoustic and electric), daegeum flute, and Korean percussion, and on some pieces, she is present only as composer, with the music performed by various combinations of instruments and electronics. You’ll hear everything from sparse meditations to chamber orchestras, string quartets, and such diverse sounds as tabla, pipa, shakuhachi, accordion, and Hans Reichel’s creations. Special mention can be made (because many of us are partial to guitar music) of the set of collaborations that appear near the end of the collection, related to her album Komunguitar (1993). These pieces feature Reichel, Derek Bailey, Henry Kaiser, Elliott Sharp, and Bill Frisell, sometimes in duos and sometimes with others, and seem to be mostly different tracks than on the 1993 album. Saxophonist Oliver Lake appears on several tracks, exemplifying Kim’s commitment to what she refers to as “cross-cultural improvisation.” It’s safe to say that no one is likely to sit down and listen to this entire collection in a single session, and given that the vast majority of tracks are over ten minutes in length, one or two pieces at a time feels about right. Suffice it to say that you can listen for as long as you like, and you’re unlikely to hear much in the way of repetition. I have to admit that I wish there were more tracks of digestible length, but as it stands, The Jin Hi Kim Collection is a monument to the creative life of this artistic innovator.

Filed under: Archives, 2026 releases, 2024 recordings

Related artist(s): Bill Frisell, Hans Reichel, William Parker, Kronos Quartet, Elliott Sharp, Henry Kaiser, Derek Bailey, Oliver Lake, Tony Oxley, Kim Jin-Hi

More info
http://neumarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-jin-hi-kim-collection

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.