Korean social and folk music

 

KOREAN SOCIAL AND FOLK MUSIC

recorded by John Levy

Lyrichord,  1969, LLST 7211

John Levy (1910-1976) was a British philosopher as well as a recording engineer; he travelled mainly in Europe and Asia and became a connoisseur of some Asian musical traditions like Korean or Tibetan ones.
His massive personal collection of recordings is now housed at the School of Scottish Studies. All the LPs issued by Levy are well documented with a good deal of explanations. This album is one of them.
We can listen to three instrumental sanjo with komungo, ajaeng and hojok. The other tracks feature one male singer and three female singers. There is a very short extract of p'ansori while the other three songs are complete. All tracks have puk or changgo backing. Track A2 is a fantastic ajaeng solo by Han Ilsup. The whole album is outstanding.
Lyrichord is an American label which started in 1950 dealing with traditional and modern world music along with early and classical music. On the central sticker of the album is written : ''exceptional LP records for the discerning listener''. Truly I was never disappointed by any of that label's productions.

This LP has not been reissued as a CD but is available on Lyrichord site for downloading. So I'd mention this album only as a reminder.