{"id":855,"date":"2020-05-30T14:16:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T19:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=855"},"modified":"2021-06-24T17:06:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T22:06:58","slug":"review-okkyung-lees-yeo-neun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-okkyung-lees-yeo-neun\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Okkyung Lee&#8217;s &#8216;Yeo-Neun&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cellist Okkyung Lee is best known for her visceral attack and extended techniques, which can be heard on past albums such as <em>Ghil <\/em>(Ideologic Organ, 2013). On <em>Yeo-Neun<\/em> (Shelter Press, 2020), she embraces the delicacy of chamber music, leading a quartet including Maeve Gilchrist (harp), Eivind Opsvik (bass), and Jacob Sacks (piano). Lee has not lost her experimental edge &#8211; she can bend the cello to her will in such a manner that sometimes it&#8217;s impossible not to focus on her. However, even though she composed the entire album, <em>Yeo-Neun<\/em> is never solely about Lee. Each tune puts the onus on the quartet as a whole.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Yeo-Neun<\/em> is a serene mix of avant-garde classical music, free-improvisation, and Korean compositional nuance. Looking to her homelands&#8217; musical tradition for inspiration has given Lee a beautiful melodic sense, with both &#8220;Uiro (Up and Up and Up)&#8221; and &#8220;One Bright Lazy Sunday Afternoon (You Whispered That Name)&#8221; having memorable motifs. There are moments of kaleidoscopic intricacy, which can be heard in the piano-harp dialogue of &#8220;The Yellow Porcelain Bird&#8221;, and the quartet also excels in more spacious environments. &#8220;Here We Are (Once Again)&#8221; and &#8220;In Stardust (For Kang Kyung-Ok)&#8221; contain striking moments of pensive playing. The former has an uncanny ethereal beauty and the foreboding environment of the latter has a remarkable unsettling tension. The juxtaposition between Lee&#8217;s abrasive cello and Gilchrist and Sacks&#8217; subdued approach makes &#8220;In Stardust (For Kang Kyung-Ok)&#8221; a thrilling listen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Lee focuses on the more aggressive aspects of her style and takes the band with her, the results are stunning. Piano and cello combine in &#8220;The Longest Morning&#8221; for a fascinating improvisational bout. The musicians expertly switch from chaos to calming folk melodies in &#8220;Another Old Story (\uc61b\ub0a0\uc774\uc57c\uae30)&#8221;. Towards the end of the album, the haunting &#8220;Facing Your Shadows&#8221; culminates in gripping, combative fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Yeo-Neun <\/em>will open more doors for a musician whose immense skill has never been in doubt. Lee&#8217;s quartet, formed in 2016, has chemistry beyond its years. This is an excellent recording full of a spellbinding balance of patience, melody, and freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1259952549\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/shelterpress.bandcamp.com\/album\/yeo-neun\">Yeo-Neun by Okkyung Lee<\/a><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Yeo-Neun<\/em> is now available from <a href=\"https:\/\/shelter-press.org\/product\/sp115-okkyung-lee-yeo-neun-lp\/\">Shelter Press&#8217; online store<\/a> or on <a href=\"https:\/\/shelterpress.bandcamp.com\/album\/yeo-neun\">Bandcamp<\/a>.<br><br><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/388bwC9\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow\">Or, if you would like to both purchase the album and help our site offset its operating costs, you can buy it from our Amazon affiliate store.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><br><br>Personnel: Okkyung Lee (cello, composer, producer), Maeve Gilchrist (harp), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jacob Sacks (piano).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cellist Okkyung Lee is best known for her visceral attack and extended techniques, which can be heard on past albums such as Ghil (Ideologic Organ, 2013). On Yeo-Neun (Shelter Press, 2020), she embraces the delicacy of chamber music, leading a quartet including Maeve Gilchrist (harp), Eivind Opsvik (bass), and Jacob Sacks (piano). Lee has not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":54,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[557,558,556,555,560,559],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-eivind-opsvik","tag-jacob-sacks","tag-maeve-gilchrist","tag-okkyung-lee","tag-shelter-press","tag-yeo-neun"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Okkyung-Lee-Yeou200B-u200BNeun-vinyl.jpg?fit=800%2C540&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peRkRR-dN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2086,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/postgenres-best-of-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":0},"title":"PostGenre&#8217;s Best of 2020","author":"PostGenre Writing Staff","date":"December 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For nearly everyone, 2020 has been a time of difficulty. A pandemic. Intense political uncertainty. Murder hornets (?). It has not been an easy twelve months. To help cope, many look to the artist to provide an escape from their current circumstances. Fortunately, we are in the midst of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lists&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lists","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/lists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage7.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage7.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage7.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage7.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4362,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/belladonna-amaryllis-halvorson-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":1},"title":"Poisonous Beauty:  A Conversation with Mary Halvorson (Part One)","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"May 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Sir Jeffrey Tate, the first principal conductor of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, once noted that \"the most perfect expression of human behavior is a string quartet.\" Where a string quartet can sound serene in one moment, it may reflect panic or morosity in the next. As Tate\u2019s original\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/belladonna.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/belladonna.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/belladonna.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/belladonna.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9869,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/dream-house-vandever\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":2},"title":"Dream House: A Conversation with Kalia Vandever","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"December 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Western literature has long noted the disconnection between perception and reality. In 1175, French monk Alain de Lille \"Do not hold everything gold that shines like gold.\u201d Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare carried this thought through The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) and The Merchant of Venice (1596-1598), respectively. Now, centuries later,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/img_0448-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/img_0448-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/img_0448-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/img_0448-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4389,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/belladonna-amaryllis-halvorson-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":3},"title":"Poisonous Beauty:  A Conversation with Mary Halvorson (Part Two)","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"May 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We continue our conversation with Mary Halvorson (Part One here) with a focus on her compositional process, the origin of her new sextet, the selection of the Mivos Quartet, and how Belladonna (Nonesuch, 2022) and Amaryllis (Nonesuch, 2022) connect to some of her other projects. PostGenre: One of the more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amaryllis.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amaryllis.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amaryllis.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amaryllis.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/amaryllis.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7692,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-mary-halvorson-cloudward\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":4},"title":"Review: Mary Halvorson&#8217;s &#8216;Cloudward&#8217;","author":"Brian Kiwanuka","date":"January 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mary Halvorson gives a wide range of effects and musical roles to her guitar, and the result is always idiosyncratic. The guitarist's compositions have a complex, innovative edge, and\u00a0Cloudward\u00a0(Nonesuch, 2024) is more evidence as to why she deserves all the acclaim that comes her way. The intensity and progression of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Album Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Album Reviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mary-halvorson-store-20231.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mary-halvorson-store-20231.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mary-halvorson-store-20231.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mary-halvorson-store-20231.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11918,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-solastalgia-davis-lutoslwaski\/","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":5},"title":"Review: Kris Davis and the Lutos\u0142awski Quartet\u2019s \u2018The Solastalgia Suite\u2019","author":"Jim Hynes","date":"January 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht, the term \u2018solastalgia\u201d centers on the theme of homesickness while still at home with a focus towards surveying environmental damage. \u201cOur environment is transforming around us, and we grieve for the landscapes and ecologies we knew,\u201d says Albrecht. These feelings inspire The Solastalgia Suite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Album Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Album Reviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/img_3584.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/img_3584.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/img_3584.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/img_3584.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}