Zero Chime, by Sunik Kim

Zero Chime

by Sunik Kim

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ddb Not sure what to describe this as. This is an overwhelming album with what sounds like a lot of improv and electronic music. There's often too much going on to decipher the bits. Favorite track: The Truth.

Michael Mueller Never heard an album quite like this one.

This is an aural assault, a barrage of dissonant, weaponised jazz tonality of such intensity that it almost becomes a solid wall of sound.

Within the cacophony, however, individual elements momentarily flicker and are gone; a distinct saxophone line here, a speaking voice there.

A strident cry to be heard in the midst of a ceaseless roar.

This is a protest album; a brutalist slab of aural truth.

Brace yourself. And listen. Favorite track: The Truth.

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1.	The Truth 05:23	buy track
2.	Lament X 05:24	buy track
3.	Peace On E 08:51	buy track
4.	Beem 05:01	buy track
5.	Independ 08:42	buy track

about

"Cacophonous free-jazz brilliance from NYC-based Sunik Kim, intended as a sonic weapon against the West and its historical and ongoing subjugation of the Korean peninsula, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the country’s declaration of Independence. Sounds to us like Joseph Hammer dueling Merzbow at Mr. Bungle’s gaff." - Boomkat

"The good people at First Terrace Records are clearly on a saxophone hype at the moment. Following up their Ben Vince/Jacob Samuel collaborative LP, the label now present Zero Chime, a five-tracker from Korean-American sound artist/saxophonist Sunik Kim. Mind you, this frenetic, screeching amalgamation of free jazz, digital noise, grinding drones and computer music is a world away from Vince and Samuel’s work. Think Albert Ayler and Territorial Gobbing." - Bleep

"Wild free jazz spirit meets colossal computer music sculptures."
- Norman Records

—————

Sunik Kim is an LA-based Korean-American musician, writer, and filmmaker.

After some time away from music, Kim is re-emerging in 2019 with their debut album, Zero Chime. Kim's new work merges Korean 시나위 exorcism, blinding free jazz in the vein of Albert Ayler and John Coltrane, sculptural computer music and mid-90s jungle in search of an entirely new kind of rolling "energy music" that embodies a shamanic Korean spirit. Kim's work is grounded in a radical Korean politics, striving to convey as physically as possible Korea's largely disregarded—and ongoing—history of being oppressed, colonized and divided by imperialist powers.

Koreans have a specific and highly contentious word—han—burdened with this history. Briefly defined as "a feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered...a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge," han is the visceral physical and emotional state of trauma stemming from the material Korean reality of decades of violent colonization, war, forced capitalist development, crushing economic sanctions and neoliberal austerity multiplied over generations, building in rage and intensity as they remain unresolved—as the United States still occupies the south with tens of thousands of soldiers and threatens the north with nuclear annihilation, as the Korean War remains active and the DMZ a brutal reality.

Zero Chime is a sound-weapon aimed at the West, made of and embodying han in as true a sense as possible, a shamanic Korean colony-music exorcising the ghosts of historical subjugation—and a brand new start.

credits

released November 1, 2019

All music written, performed & mixed by Sunik Kim

Instruments: Taepyeongso (태평소), Haegeum (해금), Kkwaenggwari (꽹과리), Janggu (장구), Jing (징), Buk (북), Alto Saxophone, Serge Modular Music System

Artwork & design: Joe Durnan
Mastering: Rashad Becker

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Sunik Kim

ropeeditions.bandcamp.com/album/tears-of-rage

www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/sunik-kim-potential/

noticerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/raid-on-the-white-tiger-regiment

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