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Alpha

Unsuk Chin

Contemporary Dramatic Virtuosic Exotic Dark
$20.99

Details

Composer
Unsuk Chin
Artist
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Bleuse, Samuel Favre, Dimitri Vassilakis
Format
CD
Label
Alpha
Released
Apr 10, 2026
Catalog #
ALPHA1200
UPC
3701624512005

About

The Ensemble InterContemporain and it's musical director Pierre Bleuse continue their monographs on the great figures of contemporary musical composition. After the multi-award-winning Ligeti, it is the composer Unsuk Chin who is celebrated here. Of Korean origin, she moved to Germany in the 1980s. Her music shines with an immediate sensuality, and the inexhaustible transformations of her instrumental polyphony produce unprecedented sound constellations. This programme presents her piece Gougalon (2009/12), which evokes the memory of the travelling amateur theatres of her native country, with deliberately offbeat instrumentation in six episodes. She presents it as 'imaginary folk music that is stylised, fractured and only appears to be primitive.' Chin titled her 2013 piece for large ensemble Graffiti. All sound registers are exploited in a colourful, lively, and varied manner. 'The musical language of Graffiti oscillates between roughness and refinement, complexity and transparency,' says the composer. Her double concerto for piano and percussion completes this programme.

Tracklist 10 tracks

  1. 1 I. Prologue: Dramatic Opening of the Curtain 03:30
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Prologue: Dramatic Opening of the Curtain
    Duration
    03:30
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  2. 2 II. Lament of the Bald Singer 03:48
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Lament of the Bald Singer
    Duration
    03:48
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  3. 3 III. The Grinning Fortuneteller with the False Teeth 02:37
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. The Grinning Fortuneteller with the False Teeth
    Duration
    02:37
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  4. 4 IV. Episode between Bottles and Cans 02:45
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Episode between Bottles and Cans
    Duration
    02:45
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  5. 5 V. Dance around the Shacks 03:02
    Track
    5
    Title
    V. Dance around the Shacks
    Duration
    03:02
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  6. 6 VII. The Hunt for the Quack’s Plait 03:21
    Track
    6
    Title
    VII. The Hunt for the Quack’s Plait
    Duration
    03:21
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  7. 7 Double Concerto 19:07
    Track
    7
    Title
    Double Concerto
    Duration
    19:07
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Performer
    Dimitri Vassilakis, Samuel Favre
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  8. 8 I. Palimpsest 09:17
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. Palimpsest
    Duration
    09:17
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  9. 9 II. Notturno Urbano 07:32
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. Notturno Urbano
    Duration
    07:32
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse
  10. 10 III. Passacaglia 05:15
    Track
    10
    Title
    III. Passacaglia
    Duration
    05:15
    Composer
    Unsuk Chin
    Ensemble
    Ensemble InterContemporain
    Conductor
    Pierre Bleuse