ListN Up playlists are commissioned by American Composers Forum. Artists are selected by ACF staff (including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN and innova Recordings).
Yoon-Ji Lee is a composer who creates unconventional and non-linear compositions. Lee is interested in writing music about contemporary society, history, and culture while creating through combining acoustic and electroacoustic mediums, as well as interdisciplinary, multimedia, and intercultural influences. Lee has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the McKnight/American Composers Forum Visiting Composer Fellowship, the Fromm Foundation Commission, the Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship while collaborating with JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Argento Ensemble, Ensemble MISE-EN, and more. Lee wants to promote fresh insights into humanity and the human experience through the exploration of novel musical forms and innovative approaches to sound. Lee is currently an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music.
Hi everyone, my name is Yoon-Ji Lee. I’m a composer who writes music that explores the intersections of sound, contemporary society, history, and culture through both acoustic and electro-acoustic mediums. My artistic journey has been deeply influenced by the encounters and the collaborations with other artists, musicians, and writers, which has been instrumental in shaping my growth.
For this week’s ListN Up Playlist, I’ve selected pieces that revolve around the theme of pushing the boundaries – challenging the limits of musical form, genres, technologies, psycho-acoustics, gender, identities, and thoughts. I hope you can find something in these works that resonants with you. I’d like to extend a special thanks to Amanda Cook and Tim Igel for inviting me to be part of this meaningful opportunity. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy the music.
Living Sound by Maryanne Amacher
Maryanne Amacher’s Living Sound always retunes my ears, drawing my attention to the various phenomena and changes that emerge from its multilayered textures. There is complexity in its simplicity. I often listen to her music when I find it difficult to shift into composition mode after a busy day. It stimulates and rebuilds my musical self by evoking both physical and emotional sensations. For me, it is a form of active sonic meditation.
심봉사 물에 빠지는 대목 중타령 (“Simbongsa Falls into the Water”) from The Songs of Sim Cheong (Simcheongga), Performed by Min Eun Kyung and Park Jae Chun
This amazing P’ansori performance (Korean traditional vocal music) is a reinterpretation and recreation of the traditional P’ansori Simcheongga by Min Eun Kyung, who mastered Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 5 P’ansori in Korea, and Park Jae Chun (drummer). Last summer, I had the opportunity to study with Eun Kyung about the Korean National Changgeuk Theater and P’ansori, and I was fascinated by the efforts and achievements of these young musicians to recreate the traditional repertoire while conveying contemporary culture and society. In the story, Simcheong sacrifices herself to the sea god by throwing herself into the water in order to restore her blind father’s sight. In P’ansori, the Gosu (drummer) traditionally plays the Buk (a specific P’ansori drum), but Jae Chun reinterprets it using a drum set.
Hypercubus by Elliott Sharp’s Orchestra Carbon
Elliott Sharp’s music consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary sound, blending elements from jazz, rock, avant-garde, experimental, classical, improvisation, and electronic music. Drawing inspiration from fractal geometry and feedback loops, he creates infinite possibilities for synthesizing new ideas and sounds, resulting in something entirely unique with a strong presence. Orchestra Carbon, one of these creations (born in the 1980s), continues to embody the spirit of new music. Elliott’s work always inspires me to be bold in my compositional choices and artistic freedom and I often feel a deep connection, as though we share a similar musical energy.
VOCALNORI – Health (건강) by Leo Chang
Leo Chang is a Korean improviser, composer, and sound artist based in Brooklyn. In his piece VOCALNORI – Health (건강), Leo amplifies and filters his vocal sounds through Korean gongs and other metallic objects, using a custom-made system incorporating electronic instruments.
Having grown up in Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, and the U.S., Leo’s sense of Koreanness shifts from multiplicity to singularity, which contrasts with my own experience of Koreanness. Because of this, I always find his music to be challenging, inspiring, and filled with unique insights. His work highlights how cultural identity can be an amorphous inheritance, constantly reshaped and redefined.
Christian Marclay’s Meta-Concert at the Museum Tinguely, featuring Okkyung Lee and Luc Müller
In this performance, Christian Marclay, Okkyung Lee, and Luc Müller engage in simultaneous interaction and contextualization/recontextualization, breathing new life into Jean Tinguely’s artwork and the museum space. To me this process allows for different interpretations of their existence. At some point, I felt that performers can be part of the artwork in this performance. Additionally, there are many ways to visualize sound, but this is the most physical manifestation of it, as everyone in the space becomes connected with the sound in that moment.
Suzanne Ciani’s Live Performance at P2 Art’s Birthday Party in Stockholm
I had the opportunity to hear Suzanne Ciani play the Buchla for the first time a few years ago at my workplace, alongside a student chamber group, and it was absolutely sensational. It was magical to see how she worked with each module, creating and integrating the patches, her performance organically grew and evolved. Following her sound, I had a deeply sensorial experience, as if I were being transformed into her sense of time and sharing in the Buchla’s unique musical space.
Monk’s Mood by Thelonious Monk, Performed by Miya Masaoka and Reggie Workman
When I first heard this piece, I immediately thought of giving it the subtitle, “How Koto Understands Monk.” At the heart of this understanding is Miya Masaoka, who brings her unique insight into the interpretation. I’ve heard many Asian zither instruments perform famous Western tunes in the realm of so-called fusion music, but this composition felt different. It wasn’t just fusion; it was a genuine meeting of minds. Thelonious Monk, Miya Masaoka, and Reggie Workman came together as equals, creating a piece that transcended the boundaries between East and West.
“this is but an oration of loss” by Hannah Kendall, Performed by Ekmeles
When I first encountered this piece, I was struck by the dissonance of the opening harmonica sounds, which gradually redefined as if they were haunting, anguished, and distorted human voices as the actual voices entered. This composition draws inspiration from M. NourbeSe Philip’s account of the 1781 drowning of more than 130 enslaved Africans, who were thrown off a British slave ship. Having been immersed in the Korean comfort women project over the years, Hannah Kendall’s piece resonated deeply with me. Contemporary music can engage with traumatic histories while transforming them into a powerful new art form.
Unbreathable Colors by Wang Lu, Performed by Miranda Cuckson
In this piece, I was intrigued by how Wang Lu drew parallels between China’s air pollution, marked by color-coded warning systems, and the violin’s characteristics of the sound, as played by Miranda Cuckson, reflecting the restriction and disruption of daily life. The urban environment has been one of my significant interests as a source of inspiration for composing music. Rather than directly describing the inspiration, the music transforms these ideas, guiding our imagination and allowing us to feel like we are experiencing the situation. In my opinion, this piece diversifies different approaches to expressing humanity through music.
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