Arirang and Minyo Singing

Lee is a singer who has been deemed so culturally significant that the South Korean government awarded her the prestigious designation of Human Cultural Property for her considerable musical skills. She specialises in songs from Gyeonggi, the province surrounding Seoul. Many Gyeonggi folk songs date from the 19th century, displaying a lyrical style that can be heard on many of the early Korean recordings and radio broadcasts.

Arirang is these days the best known song form. Functioning as an unofficial national folk song common to both South and North Korea, it is given here in its familiar form but also in two delightful and contemplative versions that are supposedly more ancient. Longing or yearning is the hallmark of the lyrics: telling of a woman waiting forlornly for a boyfriend who is destined never to return, for example, or of a poor labourer in Seoul looking over the hills to his distant home village. Taepyeongga, a style dating from the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea and meant as a paean to peace, is an exception, and Lee also gives secular and ceremonial versions of hoesimgok, a type of singing based on Buddhist scripture. Light, crisp drums and plaintive instrumental accompaniments fill out some of the songs, but the album is really all about Lee's slightly husky, cleverly ornamented, superb vocals.