Playlist: Jambinai (October 2020)

With another edition of the K-Music Festival just around the corner, and this year it’s inevitably going to be quite a sui-generis and unique one, we wanted you to get acquainted with one of the acts making the bill of the Korean-music focussed event, which is starting on Saturday for the first time in a “hybrid” guise, happening both online and live in London.

Actually, there’s not much need to introduce them, since they are already one of the most acclaimed and forward-looking Korean acts. Still, we are more than thrilled to feature a playlist compiled for us by post-rock and folk quintet Jambinai.

The band, whose performance will be streamed on YouTube on Saturday at 5PM (UK time), has helped Korean music to move forward and spread itself around the globe. Amalgamating traditional elements like their millennia-old instrumentation featuring a geomungo (similar to the zyther), piri (flute), taepyeongso (oboe) and haegeum (fiddle) and the historic gugak repertoire, with more contemporary and avant-garde ingredients like heavily amplified electric guitars and a noise and ‘post’ attitude, Jambinai have shaped their very own stylistic niche, becoming one of the most original and inspired names in their country’s scene and moving away from its canons.

To receive and publish their collective playlist, featuring their all-embracing influences, was an enlightening process for us as well and we are pretty sure it will be the same for you.

Check out Jambinai music inspirations and don’t miss their show as part of K-Music Festival 2020 on Saturday at 5PM (GMT) following THIS LINK.

Picked by Ilwoo Lee

  • Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes – What Kinda Music
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto – Blu
  • Ludwig GöranssonTenet OST
  • NirvanaMTV Unplugged

Picked by Bomi Kim

  • Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
  • Barcelona –  Please Don’t Go
  • Sufjan Stevens – Mystery of Love
  • Nils Frahm – Ode
  • Thom Yorke – Suspirium
  • Hyukoh – Gondry
  • Kim Yoon Ju – Intro

Picked by Eun Yong Sim

  • Bruce Brubaker & Max Cooper – Metamorphosis 2 (Composed by Philip Glass)
  • Okkyung Lee – In Stardust
  • Rosalía – Catalina
  • Rosalía – Malamente
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto & Onuki Taeko – Tango
  • Sunwoo Jung-a – Crisis
  • Bill Evans & Jim Hall – Romain

Picked by B.K. Yu

  • Yussef Dayes x Alfa Mist – Love Is the Message
  • Parcels – Myenemy
  • Brian Culbertson – Back in the Day
  • Brian Culbertson – So Good

Picked by Jaehyuk Choi

  • Quincy Jones & James Ingram – Just Once
  • Jeffrey Osborne – On the Wings of Love
  • Spandau Ballet – True
  • Chaka Khan – Through the Fire
  • Al Jarreau – After All
  • Kool & the Gang – Cherish
  • Earl Klugh – Just for Your Love