Jambinai releases track “They Keep Silence”

Jambinai release new single "They keep silence". The track comes off the bands debut release for Bella Union

South Korean trio Jambinai recently announced their debut album A Hermitage for Bella Union, due out June 17th. Today, the band have share their video for “They Keep Silence”. The video was directed by Oh Geun Jae—

Oh Geun Jae explains: “All the people around the world who see this video, I want that they feel just like me every time I see Jambinai perform. I like that we share the same emotions.That is what I considered most making this video for “They Keep Silence” and I only focused on expressing that .The emotion is inexplicable in words, they create their own aura or energy, go and see a show and you know what I mean.”

A Hermitage is Jambinai’s first album for Bella Union, recorded in M.O.L Studio in the South Korean capital Seoul, where the trio also made their 2010 EP Jambinai and 2012 album Différance. In Korean, Hermitage translates as ‘Eun-Seo’: “it means person, or creature, who is hiding like a hermit, or undiscovered,” explains Bomi Kim. “This connects to Jambinai because most people don’t know us yet, or they cannot imagine how our type of music fits together.”

Jambinai’s instrumental music is coloured by Kim’s fiddle-like haegum, Ilwoo Lee’s guitar and piri (a Korean flute made of bamboo) and Eun Youg Sim’s geomungo, a Korean zither. They met studying traditional music at Korea’s National University of Arts, and found they were united by a desire to present such music in a new way, “to communicate with the ordinary person who doesn’t listen to Korean traditional music,” says Lee, the band’s principal writer. This makeover, however, eschews previous Korean modernists, who Lee says have used western classical music or jazz, for a molten fusion of metal, rock and experimental sound. “We’re darker than other Korean traditional bands,” Lee adds, with considerable understatement.

A Hermitage starts as it means to continue with “Wardrobe”, at full force. “Many post-rock bands start albums by warming up,” Lee ventures. “And mostly people expect Asian traditional music to make something smooth for yoga or meditation. We want to break with all of that.”

The inspiration for Jambinai’s music follows suit, tapping the feelings of anger and isolation felt by a new generation suspicious of the conservative forces that seek to control them. ‘Deus Benedicat Tibi’, for example, was inspired by the ‘Dae Chui Ta’, a piece of Korean traditional martial music “written for the king when he marches down the street,” Lee explains. “Nowadays, especially in Korea, many give up their dreams because life gets worse every day. We have the world’s highest suicide rate. Our song expresses a person who overcomes all hardship and suffering. I dedicate this song to the people who live in pain, to say, ‘You are the king in your own life’.”

The track “Abyss” features Korean rapper Ignito in the album’s only vocal. “I told Ignito to create some images when he listened to the music,” says Lee. “He talks of the image of an abyss and his philosophy. Sometimes I don’t understand what he says exactly but that allows me to create my own images.’

A Hermitage Tracklisting:

1. Wardrobe

2. Echo Of Creation

3. For Everything That You Lost

4. Abyss (Feat. Ignito)

5. Deus Benedicat Tibi

6. The Mountain

7. Naboorak

8. They Keep Silence

Advertisement

Looking for something new to listen to?

Sign up to our all-new newsletter for top-notch reviews, news, videos and playlists.