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For the last couple of years, Seoul has had a small but flowering EAI (Electro-acoustic improvisation) scene. At regular intervals, a select group of native Koreans, emigrants and foreign guests lose themselves in musical improvisation joined in collectives such as Relay and Bulgasari. Thanks to labels like Balloon & Needle and Manual, the rest of the world also has had the pleasure of being introduced to these musical specimens of Korean exoticism. A remarkable feature of this scene is their choice of instruments: conventional instruments are not the scene’s musical weapons of choice. Choi Joonyong, the boss of Balloon & Needle, for instance, nowadays mainly uses dismantled CD-players, and Ryu Hankil, the boss of Manual, fiddles around with the mainspring and inside wheels of clocks which he paws with chopsticks and amplifies with contact microphones.

Choi Joonyong is an old-timer in the scene and with some sense of heroism, one may even call him a pioneer. After a barrage of Korean utterances, we asked him for some explanation. Incidentally, in Korea, the surname is always put first, so the family name actually is the first name: friends and acquaintances call Choi Joonyong therefore Joonyong, whereas others call him Mr. Choi, albeit in Korean, of course.

It all happened when I first listened to Merzbow, which Hong Chulki (the other member of Astronoise) introduced to me. I was used to guitar feedback sounds from bands like Sonic Youth, but this was something new for me. And there was no Korean noise-related music back then. So discovering Japanoise like Merzbow and Masonna was a big influence for starting Astronoise.

After several gigs, Astronoise wasn’t booked at venues anymore. Until 2003, when Bulgasari (and somewhat later Relay) organized concert series based on improvising with other musicians. So there were lots of chances to play with musicians ranging from Korean traditional musicians to so-called Onkyo-style musicians such as Sachiko M and Taku Unami. These experiences made me try different ways to play. But I still play harsh and loud noise. I just like dirty sound (laugh).

I think we’re likely to use sound reproducing machine because they are easy to find, and maybe because we’re not that good at playing real musical instruments (laugh). If any machine has an input and output, we just plug it onto itself and make a feedback loop, or open it to mess with it. As for me, I got inspired by turntable artists like Otomo Yoshihide and Christian Marclay. I had the idea to use a CD-player like a turntable, but not the way you would use a CDJ-machine.

I do little bending or making short circuit of CD-players, but I often end up breaking it (laugh). Yes, I touch the print board with tiny screwdrivers, but these days I'm trying to use CD-players’ innate sound such as the spinning sound or the sound of lens pickup moving. A CD-player is a very sensitive machine. I use both portable and small non-portable CD-players, and I often see sparks when I bend non-portable one. It's scary. Since I don't have any technical knowledge, I just stay away from power area and do minimal bending on output area.

I think you can call it a small scene. Fellow musicians like Hong Chulki, Ryu Hankil, Jin Sangtae, Park Seungjun are strongly involved, not only playing music but also organizing concerts and making records. Ryu Hankil is organizing Relay and it helped this scene to grow. Also foreign musicians like Joe Foster, Alfred Harth, Sato Yukie are very active in Seoul. Especially Sato Yukie as he started Bulgasari. Although it seems to be getting tougher to maintain this scene, and we’re looking for more musicians and audiences who have interest in this kind of music.

I enjoy his performance and admire his music. Maybe the fact that he has developed a unique way to play saxophone inspired me. Other than that, there seems to be no relevant connection. Actually there is a big gap between older generation of Korean free jazz improvisation like Kang Tae Hwan, Choi Sun Bae (trumpet), Kim Dae Hwan (drum; he died a couple of years ago), Park Je Chun (percussion) and younger musicians like us, because of different musical backgrounds and differences in age, which is a big obstacle in communication in Korea. We've never played with them neither, except Choi Sun Bae. Maybe I'll ask Kang Tae Hwan when I see him at Pauze festival (laugh).

This interview is conducted in conjunction with the upcoming PAUZE festival in The Netherlands & Belgium organized by (K-RAA-K), November 13-15. More information HERE.