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"So we decided to start our own free improvisation meeting; Hankil [Ryu Hankil] introduced us, Jin Sangtae, who was making music out of radio, harddrive and fluorescent lamp, and Bonnie Jones of English [England] stayed in Seoul and collaborated with us from time to time then. The first RELAY meeting was on 18 March 2005. We had two things in our mind; aesthetically speaking, we wanted monthly improvisation concert more concentrated on making music (I still call it music) out of non-musical sound/noise, or even interaction with something extra-aural, the visual; regarding out artistic lives, RELAY's main goal was to build a sustaining network among improvisers and experimental musicians domestic and abroad. We thought that this kind of networking is not only beneficial to building a scene in Seoul but also crucial for maintaining our own activities in the long run. Hankil's pains for the government grants reception was for this objective and he eventually succeeded in 2006 so that we could invite musicians outside South Korea (but the thing are different now when it comes to the Korean government's cultural policies).
I suppose, it was the interests in 'the sound as such,' which didn't presuppose any musical ends, that led us to the free improvisation. Or course, this was not an inclination to the original and natural sound at all; it even opposed to that. When we decided to use cheap second hand electronics and devices like CD players, hard-drives, clockworks, amp heads, guitar pickups and circuit-boards of delay pedals, it was no longer an option to either represent these hi-end sounds or play music in conventional meaning. [Sampling could be another alternative. But in this sort music these machines become the sound sources and the sampler/sequencer (or laptop) becomes the instrument.] For us, free improvisation was the (in)determinate way of discover/invent the new musical language proper to those 'non-instrumental' instruments. The improvisational collaboration was the main part of the rest of the possibilities we experienced. From my viewpoint collective improvisation is, if at least potentially, the excellent site of musical exchange (and even artistic education in some sense) and the complete work of art at the same time. This completeness might amount to the complexity that is not subjected to the initial appreciation through the records (just like these discs). However, is it the identical completeness lacking in the non-improvisational recordings, that can leave more room, indeterminacy, or even rights for the listeners to interpret and determine the constellation of timbres and temporalities without associational and referential imagination? Can't it be another source of sonic pleasure?
Then, what were the limits we couldn't overcome? Primarily, the government grants; it meant both chances and constraints. Inviting the musicians abroad and organizing the concerts became possible only after the RELAY's application forms were accepted. However, sort of 'genre politics' inside the music scene both 'academic and popular' forced Hankil to apply for the fields of 'media art' or 'sound art' (especially since 2007). For those who were from the cultural policy-maker to our colleague indie musicians, we seemed to belong to somewhere outside the musical field. In my opinion, their idea of distinction between music and non-music, art and non-art, or academic music and popular music is so established that they left little room to recognize such activities as RELAY. Although we were into the pleasure of improvising sound and noise rather than the questioning of these imaginary boundaries, we had to experience the exclusiveness in several occasions, from domestic review of our CD releases to renting venues for concert. In Hankil's words, 'we has been independent even from the independent music scene.' This is not just about complaining or whining. We may be too impatient not only for the circumstances but also for what we have done. There's not much sign of scene-formation or development on the local level. Few audience and rare new comers.
Obviously, in some sense, the situation has worsened. In particular, the new South Korean administration's neoliberal (and even neoconservative) agenda, in times of world scale decline of neoliberalism as such, has perfectly reflected in its cultural policies and influences people like us with small independent activities. It would be unrealistic if the government is expected to support the entire cultural activities. But it will be equally ridiculous if the government only subsidizes the organizations with scale, popularity and recognition for competitiveness and profitability in the name of the free market (or even the organization that shows the ideological allegiance to the government). I am quite sure that this set of policies will not be successful in the long run, but it is a part of our reality for now and, nevertheless, we should keep on experimenting."
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RELAY: Archive 2007-2008
*Full list of artists may be found here.
**Extensive archival audio/video footage may be found here.
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