Discographies

“An intriguing instrumental set that mixes minimalism and melody with bursts of furious energy and experimentation, with echoes of anything from ambient styles to free jazz. This is music that ebbs and flows like the sea. There are passages where vibraphone and dulcimer provide throbbing, repeated and percussive backing for piri, or horn solos that gradually build up and erupt like a furious storm before the calm eventually returns, as in the lengthy All Soul’s Day. And there are gently tranquil, atmospheric passages where the saenghwang sounds like an organ – as on the exquisite The Longing of the Yawning Divide, inspired by the Belgian monastery where she rehearsed with her band.”

-The Guardian (‘World music album of the month’) ★★★★☆

“Jiha’s gift is in her ability to skirt dull prettiness in favor of exploiting the edges of her instruments, yet not at the expense of tangible, straightforward melodies.”

-Pitch Fork

“The album features beautifully delicate yet resonant melodies, and displays her impressive range on traditional regional instruments including the saenghwang (a mouth-blown pipe organ), piri (double-reed bamboo flute) and the yanggeum (hammered dulcimer).”

-BBC Culture

“Each track builds a poetic minimalistic and avant-garde jazz interplay between all the numerous traditional instrumentation … Sometimes hypnotic, sometimes at a fever pitch of discordant beauty, a balance is cleverly struck between intensity and the attentive … Transforming Korean traditions into a more experimental language that evokes the avant-garde, neo-classical and jazz yet something quite different, Park Jiha’s tranquil to entangled discourse evocations reach beyond their Southeast Asian borders both musically and metaphysically into something approaching the unique.”

-Monolith Cocktail


“The greatest virtue of Park Jiha's album is that it has intuitive beauty. Those who are not familiar with crossover music will be mesmerized with her songs with vivid and lyrical melodies. When the intimate and beautiful melodies of Vibraphone, Saxophone, Saenghwang, Yanggeum, Piri, and bass Clarinet delicately unfold, the questions of how the rhythms of traditional Korean is transformed and how the flows of the song are connected to each other loses importance. Different instruments create a scenery and a story to which you find yourself belong forever.”
–2017 Korean Music Awards jury, Seojeong Mingaph

“박지하의 음반이 지닌 가장 큰 미덕은 직관적으로 아름답다는 점이다. 크로스오버 음악에 익숙하지 않은 이들도 얼마든지 매료시킬 수 있을 만큼 박지하의 곡들은 선명하고 서정적인 멜로디를 기반으로 곡을 전개시킨다. 비브라폰과 색소폰과 생황과 양금과 피리와 클라리넷과 퍼커션이 은밀하고 아름다운 멜로디를 기반으로 섬세하게 펼쳐질 때 국악의 장단이 어떻게 변용 되었고, 곡의 흐름이 어떻게 이어지는지를 생각할 필요는 없다. 서로 다른 악기가 어울려 풍경이 되고, 이야기가 되었다. 그 안에 빠져들어 좀처럼 나오고 싶지 않다.”
– 2017 한국대중음악상 선정위원 서정민갑