A hard stick made from the kind of narrow bamboo that grows by the Korean sea-shore is used to pluck low-pitched strings made of twisted silk. The deep, beguiling tones that emerge from these completely natural materials could have been heard at any time since the seventh century, because Korean music has a continuous tradition far longer than Western music. The stick is called a suldae, the stringed instrument is a geomungo or six-string longboard fretted zither. It is the voice at the very heart of that tradition, with a role comparable to that of the piano in the West.Yoon Jeong Heo, the bandleader, instigator and passionate driving force behind Black String, is a specialist on the geomungo. She studied with a leading master of the instrument, and when she talks about her musical heritage, there is no doubting her total commitment t...
