Miyeon & Park Je Chun

ARTIST: Miyeon & Park Je Chun

COUNTRY: South Korea

GENRE: Free and Structured Improvisation based on jazz, contemporary classical and Korean traditional music

DESCRIPTION: The critically-acclaimed duo Miyeon & Park Je Chun has performed since 1999 and released their first album “Queen & King” in 2005. They play both Free and Structured Improvisation based on jazz, contemporary classical and Korean traditional music. Since 1996, Park Je Chun, the percussionist has constantly played free jazz and world fusion with notable artists in the world. He uses a unique set of percussions both from Asian and Western cultures. The pianist of the duo, Miyeon, with sensuous and delicate touch, has a great ability not only in composing but also arranging.

Miyeon & Park released their second album “Dreams From The Ancestor” in 2008 and it was awarded the Best Crossover Album and the Best Instrumental Album in the Korean Music Awards in the following year. In this splendid work, Miyeon & Park have built the new melody lines and structures which are amazingly innovative and refreshing in Korean music history. The tunes on this album are based on Korean traditional rhythm and beat patterns or cycles. The duo have made a masterpiece full of dreams that all musicians have dreamed and the album stands at the peak point as one of the most achieved and advanced works by music today.

MORE ABOUT: Since Korea’s Free Jazz music scene took off by saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan in 1978, there was literally no one to become his successors to flourish this rather avant-garde music genre until Park and Miyeon came along in the mid 90′s.  Park’s music career began with the rock group “Shin Joonhyun and Music Power” as a drummer, then he went to university to study classical and contemporary music composition. He then become deeply fascinated by Korean traditional rhythms. He studied under renowned Korean traditional “Pansori” singers to appreciate more of Korean traditional rhythms, melodies and vocal styles.

When he first released “Fate” (1991), he featured Samulnori and Daegeum (Bamboo flute) playing completely folk rhythms; on top of that he added electronic sounds from Synthesizer and computer which had not been seen in Korea before. He was described as the Next Han Daesoo, another influential figure in the Korean music scene to recognise his extraordinary vision on his music. His attempt to try out Korean traditional rhythms on Classical, Jazz and Rock music has continued and he formed a new band “Mor-e Mori” and he met Kang Tae Hwan to perform improvisational music for the first time in 1996.

Kang Tae Hwan is the primary inspiration for Park’s musical career. Kang has challenged Park to realise that the music must present the power of absolute honesty in spiritual growth and there is Togashi Masahiko, Japanese Jazz drummer, who also has greatly influenced his music and life.

Pianist Miyeon also studied Classical and Contemporary music at the same University as Park, she began as a professional musician with Park in 1996. The critically-acclaimed Free Jazz duo has performed actively since 1999 and released their first album “Queen & King” in 2005.

Miyeon & Park released their second album “Dreams From The Ancestor” in 2008 and the album won both the Best Crossover Album and the Best Instrumental Album awards in the Korean Music Awards in the following year. In this splendid album, Miyeon & Park have built the new melody lines and structures which are amazingly innovative and refreshing in the Korean music history. The album stands at the peak point as one of the most achieved and advanced works by music today.

The duo proposes a completely new vision of Korean music, incisive and intense, rough and fierce. Park has his own drum set, consisting of Korean and Western percussion, including customised Buk, Pyeunjong (the bells are hung in a wooden frame and struck with a mallet), Chinese Wind Gong, Brass balls, kkwaenggwari (small flat gong), Bongo, Tomtom, Snare drums, Cymbals, and Latin Bells which weighs total 60kg. More amazingly he performs this drum set on the floor – it comes naturally from the Korean culture and he finds it rather comfortable.

Miyeon & Park have made several solo albums and participated in many outstanding works by world- renowned music masters.

They travel all over the world to perform and have played with Wadada Leo Smith, Satoh Masahiko, Kang Tae Hwan, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Dresser, Simon Nabatov, Jonas Hellborg, Lauren Newton, Aki Takase, Sainkho Namchylak, Gerry Hemingway, Yoshihide Otomo, Jim Black, Shibusashirazu Orchestra, Carlos Bica, Umezu Kazutoki, Michel Pilz, among many others.

Years of study and research have also led them to become themselves teachers to the younger generation, through their work with a number of independent organisations and social projects.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY:

- “Dreams From The Ancestor” (2008) (Miyeon / Park Je Chun)
- “2 Souls in Seoul” (2008) (Lauren Newton / Park Je Chun)
- “Yesanjok” (2007) (Lee Kwang Soo / Park Je Chun / Miyeon / Lee Young Kwang / Saun Gyeong Seo / Gwean Ji Hoon / Ham Ju Myung)
- “Meeting Point” (2006) (Simon Nabatov / Park Je Chun)
- “Isaiah” (2006) (Kang Tae Hwan / Miyeon / Park Je Chun)
- “Queen & King” (2005) (Miyeon / Park Je Chun)
- “Sound Skipping” (2004) (Yeo Ge Suk / Miyeon / Park Je Chun)
- “Loose Community” (2003) (Otomo Yoshihide / Park Je Chun / Mi Yeon)
- “Improvised Memories” (2003) (Kang Tae Hwan / Miyeon / Park Je Chun)
- “Simple Trust” (2002) (Miyeon)
- “Worship” (2002) (Park Je Chun)
- “Mol-e Mori II” (2001) (Park Je Chun with Satoh Masahiko, Kang Tae Hwan, Wadada Leo Smith, Gustavo Aguilar, Richard Maurer)
- “Mol-e Mori” (1996) (Park Je Chun)

SELECTED VIDEOS:

performing at LIG ART HALL in Seoul on Dec. 30th, 2009 (part 1)

performing at LIG ART HALL in Seoul on Dec. 30th, 2009 (part 2)

performing at LIG ART HALL in Seoul on Dec. 30th, 2009 (part 3)

performing at LIG ART HALL in Seoul on Dec. 30th, 2009 (part 4)

“A Dream I Never Dreamed”

“And Let It Be”, live at Kyung Hee-Gung, the historical royal palace in Seoul, Korea

“Prologue”, live at Kyung Hee-Gung, the historical royal palace in Seoul, Korea

“Korvei” by Miyeon (piano) + Park Je Chun (percussion) + Jonas Hellborg (bass) + Selva (kangeera)

“Chil-chae” by Miyeon (piano) + Park Je Chun (percussion) + Samulnori ‘Molgae”

SELECTED PRESS REVIEWS AND QUOTES:

“The Korean piano-percussion-duo Miyeon & Park are all Jazz, free, improvised Jazz. They are the only ones from the original Overseas Programme who have made it through the ash cloud. Unfortunately percussionist Park had to do without his drum set with traditional Korean drums, so that they lacked somewhat a far eastern touch, but this didn’t dampen the quality of their performance at all. Miyeon & Park played beautiful structured Free Jazz with a high level of intensity. While performing the two were vis-à-vis each other keeping constant eye contact and the finely chiseled, simple, sometimes seemingly childish piano melodies or hypnotic-repetitive pattern complemented perfectly with Park’s poly-rhythmical drum performance which produced a bubbling and sizzling density full of inner tension.” (Weser Kurier, 24 April 2010)

SELECTED PERFORMANCES:

- Cote d’Ivoire, Africa (2010) (+ Molgae + Seo Myung Hee + Kim Hyung Shin)
- Senegal, Africa (2010) (+ Molgae + Seo Myung Hee + Kim Hyung Shin)
- Tokyo/Nagoya/Saitama, Japan (2010) (Park Je Chun + Satoh Masahiko)
- Moscow/St. Petersburg/Kazan, Russia (2010) (Park Je Chun +Dickson Dee + Jonas Hellborg + Selva Ganesh)
- Tokyo, Japan (2010) (+ Matsumoto Kenichi, Kido Natsuki)
- Tokyo, Japan (2010) (+ Midorikawa Keiki + Saitoh Tetsu)
- Tokyo/Chiba, Japan (2010) (+ Umezu Kazutoki)
- Tsukuba, Japan (2010) (+ Yoshimasu Gozo + Yagi Michiyo)
- Tokyo, Japan (2010) (+ Tachibana Hideki)
- Tokyo, Japan (2010) (Park Je Chun + Otomo Yoshihide)
…
- Japan Tour (2005)
- World Percussion Ensemble Festival, South Korea (2005)
- Korean ‘Folk & Modern Music’, Malta (2005)
- Korean ‘Folk & Modern Music’, Kuwait (2005)
- Korean ‘Folk & Modern Music’, Tripoli, Libia (2005)
- Kolding Music School, Denmark (2004)
- Harare International Arts Festival, Zimbabwe (2004)
- Linterkulturelles Festival, Hamburg, Germany (2004)
- Alte und Neue Musik aus Korea, Berlin, Germany (2004)
- Korean ‘Folk & Modern Music’, Ankara/Istanbul, Turkey (2003)
- Samarakant, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2003)
- Seoul Drum Festival, Seoul, South Korea (2002)
- Pit Inn, Tokyo, Japan (2001)
- Seregey Memorial Jazz Festival, Russia (2000)
- Drum Unique Festival, Malaysia (2000)
- Los Angeles/Portland/Santa Barbara/San Francisco, USA (2000)
- Yokohama Jazz Promenade, Yokohama, Japan (1999)
- Geneva, Switzerland (1999)
- Cairo, Egypt (1998)

FOR FURTHER INFO/BOOKINGS: email us