KEDA - Hwal (2016)

KEDA is E’Joung-Ju, French-based Korean musician, master of the geomungo (the six strings traditional Korean wooden instrument) and Mathias Delplanque, renowned French electronic music composer born in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).

They both share an insatiable desire for novelty, experience and the desire to confront the ancestral sounds of the geomungo to textures, rhythms and electronic treatments.

Beyond the meeting of two instrumental practices separated by centuries, their creation stands out as an original form, drawing from ambient, dub, blues, African music and noise art. Hypnotic, warm, alternately dancing and meditative, their music is an imaginary folk, a unique and hybrid sonic adventure.

Hwal, meaning ‘bow’ in Korean, was entirely recorded live, then dissected for a whole year by Mathias Delplanque. The result of this long process represents the birth of a project meant to last; to enjoy both on stage and on disc!

Mathias Delplanque is a multi-faceted artist, a composer of electronic music, producer, performer, improviser, designer of sound installations, music critic, composer for dance and theatre. He runs the Bruit Clair label, dedicated to electronic music and sound art and has released more than twenty records on various international labels such as Quatermass/Sub Rosa, Baskaru, Crónica Electrónica and most recently on Ici d’Ailleurs.

E'Joung-Ju, artistic director of the Festival Printemps Coréen in Nantes, is a master of the geomungo, the six strings traditional Korean wooden instrument, which has a history of over 1600 years and whose use is made in the court music and popular music. Animated by a passion, E'Joung-Ju seeks to prove through her collaborations in Korea and abroad, that the wealth of her instrument allows her to adapt to any musical genre, making her the geomungo instrumentalists exploring the realm of world, jazz and electro-acoustic music.

Since the formation of the duo in 2010 at the Festival Chantier d'Artistes in Nantes, KEDA has appeared at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, at the Lieu Unique and Stereolux in Nantes and at the Odegang By Night Festival in Gent (Belgium).