PARK JIHA - All Living Things

Korean musician Park Jiha has drawn attention in recent years with albums such as “Philos” (2018) and “The Gleam” (2022), establishing herself as an innovator of post-minimalist/ambient music through her unconventional use of traditional Korean instruments, crafting atmospheric sounds very different from those of Western ambient musicians.

“All Living Things”, her fourth LP, sets out to create a soundtrack inspired by the miraculous birth of life on Earth, offering scenarios that range from post-classical to ambient, reaching at times into clearly cinematic territory.

Park Jiha imagines that the life of every living being is deeply connected to the Earth, seen as the mother of all things. To create this alternative ambience, she uses instruments such as the yanggeum (a Korean hammered dulcimer), the saenghwang (a Korean free-reed mouth organ) and the piri (a Korean flute), alongside Western instruments like glockenspiel and bells, with the addition of electronics and vocals.

The result is a series of intimate, luminous pieces centred on reflection, optimism and, above all, the search for a possible connection between one's own life and the earth, together with all the lives that inhabit and have inhabited our world. “First Buds” seems to seek out the music best suited to opening up this sonic world as quickly as possible, with a minimalism built from little bells and sounds kept apart yet joined by a texture of continuous notes in the background. This passe-partout is then pursued with ever-different instruments, the saenghwang and the piri (“Growth Ring”), or through the arpeggios of the hypnotic “Grounding”, the chosen single and probably the track that best embodies the expressive force of Park Jiha.

Minimalism thus becomes the bearer of a message, an image and an idea, concepts traditionally alien to that school. This comes through in every track of “All Living Things”, a small treasure chest of minimal gems well worth keeping.

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13/05/2025