(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation) [CD] Lauren Newton, Park Je Chun - 2 Souls in Seoul - 2008, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Recorded at Yeheum Studio in Seoul, S.Korea, on December 5, 2006
Mixed/edited/mastered at Neckarsound Studio, Tübingen, Germany

This is a concert of ‘free music voice’ Lauren Newton with South-Korean percussionist Park Je Chun. The inspirational idea seems to refer to ‘pansori’, the old narrative folk vocal style to perform stories with dramatic content, important to witness through it the depth of emotions of the narrated and sung experiences. The folk style reference is changed into a conceptual musical idea transmitted into and for free music, so without bringing a specific story to remember of life experiences with the real emotions guiding this to tell the story. Instead the whole empathetic variation lies at first in a more abstract visualization, then thoroughly discovers the voices and stories related with that discovery from within. At first, within the musical freedom of expressions, only the ghosts of experiences are traced, first only like shadows of a past existence that had a voice of their own. The piece, with calm rhythms, builds up slowly like a meditative painting. Thoroughly Lauren’s voice takes shape of the idea of real persons, first singing just like an American native Indian when concentrating on a story, like a shaman (3). The percussionist Park Chun continues to play sparsely, carefully, attentively, waiting off any movements of the lion. Further on (7) the voice starts babbling, and then is singing again (10), as if here an essence of language is turning back thoroughly to its previous expression of a singing voice (like Asian languages were). This singing then becomes like a free entertaining jazz form (11) while seemingly narrating a story. From then on, suddenly, real words come to the surface (12), like boiling bubbles where with the loosening air, hidden contents appear, still embedded in a quiet careful sense of waiting even through the notice of flashes of appearances. The voice becomes an inner cry, like in some part of the story of a usual ‘pansori’, calming down to turn into the native shamanic singing again, then showing a possessed voice briefly, which jumps off in the scene like a spark of flame, this voice appears in the images. Later, the singing becomes a song in the environment, with couch bells-alike percussion, and shows a moment of contemplation (14) and also the voices of whispering off-scene vividness. Near the end, also Park Chun takes part in the singing briefly (recorded rather quietly), a point where I recognize the essence of the pansori-style percussion, as rather off-beat but on-fact tensions to the story. His solo voice is caught by Lauren who sets in for a last outburst of her voice accompanied by Park’s adaptive percussion. Both artists here work with increased tension as with conclusive energy (16), but not until another strong contemplative moment accompanied by singing bowls. Altough I did not expect at first that this could be convincing to try, the performance succeeds to do something with ‘pansori’, even when it is with a different context and fundament, the alternative experience is rewarding. Also notes on the performance by Stuart Broomer entitled ‘border songs’ are able to give a preparation for additional depth to this experience. ~ psychedelicfolk.com
In 2006, Korean percussionist Park Je Chun organized the first Seoul Meeting Free Music festival, to which he invited Lauren Newton. They performed together at the event in a quartet. Then, Park suggested a duo recording session, the voice/percussion pairing being strongly suggestive of the Korean folk opera form called "pansori."2 Souls in Seoul is the result of that session. Park's playing (on handheld instruments, an assortment of cymbals and small drums, but no drum kit per se) ranges from the textural to the tribal, a scope that unleashes the widely varied facets of Newton's vocal talent. The duo engages in 17 short improvised pieced, locking into a ceremonial-like performance where moments of quiet, dirge-like introspection alternate with cathartic release ("Souls at Play") and movements of stunning telepathic beauty ("Relativity"). The way these (mostly) three-minute tunes begin and end on a dime, it is difficult to believe that they are all entirely improvised -- some kind of direction, canvas, or basic idea must have been predetermined. In any case, these two souls are certainly synchronized. From the hastiness of the aptly titled "Seoul Rush" to the starkness of "Souls Lament" (a large bell echoing Newton's whisper-quiet notes), 2 Souls in Seoul is a superb example of creative improvising between musicians of different cultures -- and one of Newton's most surprising releases of late. Strongly recommended. ~ allmusic.com
Seoul is a place; “soul” is a sense, and a sensor, of places—bodies,environments, histories. The soil of Korea holds shaman roots bled on and byChinese, Japanese, and Western fruits. It’s an older soul, but just as here andnow as the younger ones it engages. Pansori is Korean for a traditional musical style featuring a drummer and asinger; its etymology is “a place where many people gather” (pan) and“sound” (sori). It is a vehicle for bardic narration and musical declamation offolk sagas. These two souls don’t adhere to but do resonate with its mold.Park Je Chun’s website describes him as a pioneer in both “the free musicand traditional Korean music.” It was his idea to team up pansori style in duowith singer Lauren Newton when they performed in a larger group together forthe first (2006) Seoul Meeting Free Music (Chun’s initiative).One of the 17 short tracks here features Chun’s offering of a few lines fromthe traditional pansori repertoire, playing both singer-speaker and drummerroles to do so. The real soul of the CD, though, lies mostly in the stories toldin the sounds alone, and in a few words that do bring cognitive sense tosame.Lauren Newton ensouls several places that share, transcendently,common ground with this soul of Seoul. The first is her gender. Women play auniquely Korean role not as pansori singers, but certainly in the history ofshamanism so much Korean traditional music invokes. She comes from CoosBay, Oregon, on the Pacific Rim with Korea, the kind of rural fishing community where animist spirits are strongest in Korea. The world ofexperimental art music and post-jazz improvisation she’s moved intocomprises the Germanic countries, which share the intimate influences ofpostwar American occupation with Korea that have so stimulated, both bychallenging and informing, local cultures. Finally, like Chun, she sings the soulof Leo, the label pre-eminent at matching such souls and places.This is a music of breath (deeply synonymous with “soul” in Korean, andwith “spirit” in English) sibilants and cacophony (in the word’s purest,phonological sense), yin and yang drumming and voicing. The souls exploretheir own and each other’s instruments and sound worlds bothmicroscopically and at fullest throttle. Their range spans all places and stylesmentioned above, with the rich, sure bearings of seasoned cosmopolitans.Their apparently disjunct and meaningless gestures give rise to the sequentialflow and arc of a cryptic but decodable conversation such as Taoist masterChuang-Tzu might have had with one who had thrown all words away. ~ academia.edu

Lauren Newton - voice
Park Je Chun - percussion