Chi-da by Eunhye Jeong

The motive of the recording is my art name Hyun Gok 玄曲 given by my Pansori teacher Il-dong Bae. Hyun means ‘black (mixed with dark red)’, ‘mystery of universe or the invisible principle of life’. Gok means ‘curved’, ‘curve’ and ‘song’. I’ve contemplated on Hyun Gok for about three years, trying to understand its meaning and to realize that in my musical creations. Hyun Gok brought my attention to the moment of beginning - rather similar to the idea of singularity - and the silence before the music manifests.

Chi-da is a verb in Korean meaning ‘hit’, and ’play’ a percussive musical instrument in a musical context, the action of playing, hitting to resonate/make/produce sounds. The contemplation on this very action is where the entire music was rooted and grown from in this record. All takes/pieces were created spontaneously out of the unsprung seeds of ideas buried in my mind over time, except Mysterious Valley, an existing composition of mine, which I re-constructed as improvising. The end result was 23 tracks in total; about 3 hours in length and I selected 13 tracks that spoke to me as I listened every day for about a month.

In this record, silence is not just a part of music but the essence and the source of where music is created from. It is also an invitation to a deeper listening. The action of Chi-da happens in time. It is where time meets the space, creating and marking the presence of present with weight.

https://eunhyejeong.com