New Korean avant-garde sonic group in London

Live performance, screenings and workshops explore the unique sonic and visual world of a group of young South Korean artists and noise makers using "cracked everyday electronics" who appear for first time in the UK. Date: 20-22 January 2011 Venue: Café Oto, London Produced by: Hong Chulki Choi Joonyong (cracked CD players) Hong Chulki (turntables) Ryu Hankil (self-made electro-acoustic instruments) Jin Sangtae (cracked hard-drive) Lee Hangjun (16mm film projection) Through live performance, screenings and workshops, this three day residency explores the unique sonic and visual world of a group of young South Korean artists and noise makers appearing in the UK for the first time. Within Seoul’s tiny experimental underground, this tight-knit collective has developed a sound, style and approach to creativity outside the influences of their Japanese and European kin, conjuring a distinct vocabulary that reflects the collective spirit of a new South Korean avant-garde. Formerly known as the collective ‘RELAY’ (2005-2008), the group’s use of “cracked everyday electronics” within a collaborative improvisational context, combined with their subversion of degraded and redundant found objects, produces a sound that is simultaneously chaotic, corrosive, confusing and compelling. Working with multiple 16mm film projections, filmmaker Lee Hangjun’s focus is on celluloid’s materiality: deteriorated and chemically treated archive footage. Over the last few years, the collective has focused on artistic exchange and network-building through international collaborations, including Mattin, Günter Müller, Jason Kahn and Otomo Yoshihide. Their work is primarily published and distributed through the ‘Balloon & Needle’ and ‘Manual’ imprints. Balloon & Needle is a project of Sound and Music which promotes challenging contemporary music and sound art in the UK.