South Korean composer Park Jiha deftly balances heritage and improvisation, disrupting traditional paradigms and breathing new life into ancient instruments. Moving beyond her formal training, she reimagines the Yanggeum (a hammered dulcimer), Saenghwang (a free reed mouth organ), and Piri (a double-reed bamboo oboe) to create an innovative form of minimalism. Her era-ambiguous elegies fluctuate between deeply meditative and dramatically dynamic, emerging as an ever-present prophecy of tomorrow.
Debuting as a soloist with Communion in 2018, Jiha refined her craft with Philos (2019) and The Gleam (2022). Vigorously exploring new creative pathways, her voiceless soundscapes found discordant harmony in a wildcard collaboration with Scouse poet Roy Claire Potter, recorded for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction in 2022 and released by Café Oto’s Otoroku imprint. In her first foray into film scoring, she applied her cinematic sensibilities to Garth Davis’ cli-fi psychological thriller Foe (2023, Amazon Studios), soundtracking the dying earth to contrast Oliver Coates’ parallel and intersecting contributions.
Jiha has now released and started touring her new album All Living Things (Feb. 2025), an ode to living beings via Tak:til / Glitterbeat.
October 12, 2025
Reaktor, Vienna
