Unsuk Chin

The Ensemble Intercontemporain and its musical director Pierre Bleuse continue their monographs on great personalities of contemporary music. After the multiple award-winning Ligeti, this album celebrates composer Unsuk Chin. The artist, born in Korea, moved to Germany in the 1980s. Her music is characterized by immediate sensuality and the inexhaustible transformations of her instrumental polyphony create unprecedented sound constellations. This program presents her piece Gougalon (2009/12), which in six episodes with deliberately unconventional instrumentation evokes memories of the traveling amateur theaters of her homeland. She presents it as "imaginary folk music that is stylized and fragmented and only appears primitive at first glance". Chin gave her piece for large ensemble from 2013 the title "Graffiti". All sound registers are exploited in a colorful, lively and varied manner. "The musical language of 'Graffiti' oscillates between rawness and refinement, complexity and transparency", according to the composer. Her double concerto for piano and percussion rounds off this program.