Okkyung Lee
Okkyung Lee
i saw the ghost of an unknown soul and it said…
Recorded in 2006 and released in 2008 on Ecstatic Peace, if you were wondering where our avant-garde went and if you need special 3d glasses or a decoder ring to find it you should pick up this LP and let it sink in deep.
Korean-born Okkyung Lee studied music from the age of 3-25 then moved to the lower east side of NYC and played her cello with Laurie Anderson, Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Fred Frith, Shelley Hirsch, Susie Ibarra, Thurston Moore, “Butch” Morris, Jim O’Rourke, Beth Orton, Christian Marclay, Ikue Mori, DJ Olive, Zeena Parkins, Marina Rosenfeld, John Zorn and more but here she plays alone. Although from listening you might not know it – bowed, scraped, scratched, thumped and plucked there are so many sounds coming out of this record you begin to feel like a sonic detective – who, what, where, when, why and how? Although at some point all those questions fade and your left with music and you. And that’s quite a magical moving musical trick trip.
Track listing goes like this:
side a: one, two three, four…
side b: five, and…
Liner notes go like this:
special thanks to ikue mori, zeena parkins, dion workman, andrew lampart, thurston moore, raz mestinai and tim barnes and those who still believe in noise
I still believe in noise.
The LP cover image is from a series of beautiful silent films of Okkyung Lee playing her cello by Andrew Lampart and you can watch them on the ever fascinating chock-full-o-avant-garde goodness UbuWeb.
Okkjung Lee will be performing September 1st – 15th at the Whitney Museum’s Christian Marclay: Festival.
