Okkyung Lee Preps 'Ghil' for Ideologic Organ, Shares New Track

BY Alex HudsonPublished May 7, 2013

Back in 2009, when Korean cellist Okkyung Lee released a collaborative album with Peter Evans and Steve Beresford, we noted that some of the finest moments were Lee's unaccompanied cello passages. It's good news, then, that she is preparing a new solo album for Stephen O'Malley's Editions Mego imprint Ideologic Organ. Ghil is out on June 24.

The album, which will be available digitally or on vinyl, was produced by Lasse Marhaug. He recorded Lee in the spring of 2012 using a second-hand cassette recorder from 1976, with sessions taking place in unorthodox Norwegian locales, including an Oslo back alley, a cabin on the Nesodden peninsula and a former hydroelectric power plant outside of Rjukan.

These recordings were edited without overdubs, and the only sound manipulation occurred during mastering. According to a press release, Marhaug "purposely use[d] crude equipment and unorthodox microphone placement in order to give a more raw and direct depiction of Okkyung playing her music."

See the tracklist below, and scroll past that to hear the jagged, chaotic "Two to Your Right, Five to Your Left."

Ghil:

1. The Crow Flew After Yi Sang
2. Two to Your Right, Five to Your Left
3. Strictly Vertical
4. The Space Beneath My Grey Heart
5. Cheol-kkot
6. Hollow Water
7. Two Perfectly Shaped Stones
8. Meolly Ganeun
9. Over the Oak, Under the Elm

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