music
Park Jiha’s music is delicately balanced between heritage and improvisation. The South Korean composer has a singular ability to leave us suspended in each moment and in every note she plays. Her innovative approach is transmuted into a form of minimalist music that breaks with paradigms and traditions, and gives new life to ancestral Korean instruments such as the Piri, a double-reed flute made of bamboo, the Saenghwang, a mouth organ also made of bamboo, and the Yanggeum, a dulcimer or hammered string instrument.
She secured her place on the international stage with her first solo album, Communion (2018). Philos (2019) and The Gleam (2022) followed, albums that earned her high praise from audiences and critics alike. In between, To Call out into the Night (2022) also stands out, a collaboration with poet Roy Claire Potter, recorded for a BBC Radio 3 programme and released by Otoroku, the label of London’s Café Oto. She also made her debut as a film composer with the soundtrack for Foe (2023), Garth Davis’ thriller, in partnership with British musician Oliver Coates and Danish artist Agnes Obel.
In 2025, Park Jiha returned with All Living Things, an ode to all living things and a love letter to the experience of being alive. To her highly distinctive sound world, the composer adds traces of her voice and electronic elements for the first time, resulting in a contemplative, cyclical, considered and slowly evolving work. And it is with this album that Park Jiha comes to Portugal, for a concert that promises, at the very least, to be transcendental.
supported by portuguese republic – culture, youth and sports / general direction of the arts / network of portuguese theaters and cinemas (rtcp). portuguese contemporary art network (rpac).
