DoYeon Kim, the New York-based, South Korea-born improviser and composer, has announced her debut album. Wellspring arrives on May 1st on TAO Forms, and to mark the announcement, Kim has shared lead single “The Beats of Distant Thunder”.
Playing the gayageum — a traditional Korean silk-string zither — Kim is joined on the album by drummer Tyshawn Sorey, double-bassist Henry Fraser, and Mat Maneri on viola. Together, they deliver a rumbling, immediate record built on all-Kim compositions and group improvisations, drawing on folk universalism and free improvisation. “The Beats of Distant Thunder”, the album opener, weaves Korean lullabies with relentless dialogue between drums and strings, distilling the full scope of Kim’s artistry into a single potent statement.
“This is the first time I open my hand to the world, a first greeting,” Kim says. “I wish people hearing this music [receive] energy and comfort. I want to be there with them.”
Kim chose her accompanists for their emotionally unmediated connection to the moment. “I don’t want people thinking about their ‘role’ in the music,” she explains. “I want people free from their instrument, who are more about how they are making a sound and the relationship between our sounds.” Sorey, she says, “understands the structure of the music” and can “create what the future is gonna be,” while Maneri’s “relationship to the note, how he delivers and cooks it, connecting it to the next one, decorating it” reminded her of Korean music.
Kim has previously released works alongside Joe Morris, Brandon Lopez, and Nick Dunston, and her 2017 album GaPi with Chase Morrin earned a Korean Grammy Awards nomination. She performs across New York over the coming weeks, including dates at Threes Brewing, Barbès, The Out Festival, and The Stone, as well as international shows with Kris Davis’ Massive Threads Trio and appearances at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival.
Shows
March 11 @ Threes Brewing – Brooklyn, NY w/ Vinnie Sperrazza & Brandon Seabrook
March 14 @ Barbès – Brooklyn, NY w/ Laura Cocks
March 15 @ The Out Festival – Brooklyn, NY w/ Cooper-Moore & William Parker
March 19 @ National Concert Hall – Dublin, Ireland*
March 20 @ Vortex Jazz Club – London, UK*
March 22 @ AMR Jazz Festival – Geneva, CH*
March 25 @ The Stone – New York, NY w/ Theresa Wong
March 28 @ Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN
March 29 @ Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN
*w/ Kris Davis Massive Threads Trio