Jin Hi Kim with komungo

Kim's komungo music represents an evolution of the instrument into the twenty-first century, a development she has pursued over twenty five years. Kim has created a wide array of pioneering compositions for the komungo not only as soloist but also collaborated with leading Western contemporary classical musicians, orchestra, jazz musicians, improvisers, and co-designed the world's only electric komungo.

Her new komungo music is imbued with meditative and vivid energy that makes it mesmerizing. The electric komungo was built for Ms. Kim by Joseph Yanuziello in Canada in 1998. In collaboration with Alex Noyes, she has created the live interactive pieces for the electric komungo and MIDI computer system. Using MAX/MSP, the komungo sound is processed through a personal computer program, and she is then able to blend acoustic and processed sounds using MIDI foot pedal. Staying true to the nature of the instrument, her solo interweaves from old timeless mind to space-age blips.

"Virtuoso, Jin Hi Kim promises thoughtful, shimmering East-West amalgams in combinations that are both new and unlikely to be repeated." Peter Watrous, The New York Times

"Kim performs brilliantly and evocatively on an amplified komungo."
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post

"True world music being made here, both ancient and modern and without borders. Outstanding." Dennis Yudt, Pulse Magazine

"Kim’s solo was a study in zen-like elegance." Andrew Jones, Option Magazine

"With her electric komungo, she floated sustained tones and rudimentary melodies or plucked twangs suggesting a jaw-harp or hinted at the bent notes of the blues."
Jon Pareles, The New York Times

"A lush solo improvisation stays true to the nature of the komungo while showing real imagination about how its sound can be processed and coloured." Clive Bell, Wire Magazine

 

DIGITAL BUDDHA (2006-2014)
Duration: 70 minutes
Performers: Jin Hi Kim-komungo/electric komungo
with image (Joel Cadman-video mandalas and Benton Bainbridge-video mix)

First Performance: Commissioned by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space, Premiere at Korea Festival, KT Art Hall, Seoul, South Korea (October 6, 2007)
Notes: Preview at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space under Artist-In-Residence (December 13, 2006); Additional Performances at Roulette, New York (November 16, 2007); University of Michigan Britan Hall (March 15, 2008); Expo Zaragoza, Spain (July 28-29, 2008); Festival Sinsal 6, Museo do mar Galcia, Vigo, Spain (July 30, 2008); Korean Artists Overseas Series, Korean Cultural House KOUS, Seoul (November 28-29, 2008); Detroit Institute of Art (April 24, 2009); Roger Williams University Performing Aert Center (February 8, 2009); Colby College Strider Theater, ME (March 9, 2009); Arts & Idea Festival, New Haven (June 18, 2010); Festival Salihara, Jakarta, Indonesia (September 29-30, 2010); Asian Pacific Festival at Stanford University, CA (February 9, 2012); Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with Met's Sila Exhibition (January 30, 2014); International House, Philadelphia, PA (October 25, 2018)

 

Digital Buddha Duo

Review: Tempo Magazine (PDF)

Detroit Institute of Art (2009)

Festival Salihara, Jakarta, Indonesia (2010)

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Asian Sound Revolution

ASIAN SOUND REVOLUTION DUO Traditional & Innovative Virtuosi Jin Hi Kim (komungo/electric komungo) and Min Xiao Fen (pipa/voice) perform on fretted string instruments from Korea and China.

Jin Hi Kim and Min Xiao-Fen at Henry R. Luce Hall, Sponsored by the Council on East Asia Studies at Yale university

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Improvisation Workshops (PDF)

REVIEWS

TOUCHING THE MOONS
“Her unique vision blends science fiction images, state-of-the-art technology, ancient mythology and
timeless music and dance traditions. No other artist is doing work quite like this, and she does it with superb style."  
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post

"Kim’s austere music centered the work.... (she) applied the techniques of “living tones” to sustained notes:
filling them with vibrato, tightening them until they broke, using glottal stops to make them ripple like waves
around a rock....She turned Korean court-orchestra music into a haze of distant fanfares and
remembered rites, from a time when the moon was a divine power."  
Jon Pareles, The New York Times

DRAGON BOND RITE
“(Dragon Bond Rite) cut across barriers of language, culture and tradition, touch us at deep, irrational levels
result in a work that speaks to our common humanity.”  
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post

“It’s wonderful to see these diverse Asian styles converse. All the movements are grounded,
yet how differently shaped and accented, how diverse the way feet strike the floor.
In Kim’s score, the styles of the master musicians actually merge.”  
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

“The production’s drummers were percussion virtuosos, and its singers displayed a remarkable range of
vocal techniques, from high-pitched chanting to deep, awesome rumblings.”  
Jack Anderson, The New York Times

“a ground breaking collaboration, one which illuminates the artistic soul of Asia.”  
Thomas Morley, Asian American Press (MN)

“She is a paragon of how divergent cultural disciplines can merge to produce something not only vibrant,
but also smart and forward thinking.”  
Manny Theiner, Pittsburgh City Paper   

Touching The Moons won the Wolff Ebermann Prize of International Theater Institute, Germany. Kim challenges the duality of Asian mythology and American scientific exploration of the moons of Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, Earth and Pluto. A multi-media lunar ritual utilizes the electric komungo, Indian tabla, Korean kagok singer, and Indian kathak dancer with live interactive computer-controlled MIDI systems to interface with sensors and digital animation.

Sanjo Ecstasy

Following Jin Hi Kim's appearance in the national MBC-TV broadcast of the film 100 Yars of Sanjo Ms. Kim's Sanjo Ecstasy was premiered to overwhelming success at Sanjo Festival in Jeonju, South Korea in 2003. Sanjo Ecstasy features new generation of Korea's leading musicians performing exotic traditional instruments (kayagum, haegum, janggo), with American jazz percussionist Gerry Hemingway and Jin Hi Kim's electric komungo.

Sanjo has sophisticated melodies and highly a developed rhythmic structure in the various rhythmic cycles. The Sanjo melody is very expressive, meanwhile Buddhist meditative aesthetic is carried out through the long progression of time. In the Sanjo form, the time sense is riveting, hypnotic and almost trance like in it's manner of rhythmic repetition. These highly stylized rhythmic cycles gradually accelerate resulting in a mesmerizing experience.

With an attempt of capturing the aesthetics and energy of the Sanjo, Jin Hi Kim has developed a new piece, Sanjo Ecstasy. This suite has six sections that are performed without break over a ninety minutes period of time. Each piece evokes its own energy and then links to the next. They are immersed with tension and release. In this new work, three traditional Sanjo soloists move in and out of the traditional Sanjo form as the electric komungo layers new sonic textures upon them. Korean janggo and a Western drum set juxtapose the time sense between Sanjo rhythmic cycles and a free jazz time zone.