공 空 by Melanie Eden

This album connects sounds from two different worlds I inhabited, became a part of whilst living in South Korea, Seoul 2016.
The first two tracks are recordings that were made at the end of approximately seven months intensive training whilst learning the art of Pansori, traditional Korean musical storytelling with Master Bae Il Dong.
The last three tracks are improvisations that were made thanks to Youngil Kim (studio director), and Bae Il Dong's accomodation. They are with dear friends Sato Yukie and Han Joo Lee from the experimental arts fringe of Yogiga and Bulgasari which became my family. Their music is improvised yet the words and phrases are verbatim. Only the arranging of these words or phrases are improvised. They are taken from 'Morning Pages' (Julia Cameron), a practice of self-reflection through stream of consciousness writing done first thing when you wake up. I had encouraged students to engage with this practice for healing and self-directed learning. Pages were submitted from both young and old for this recordings intent. Voices of youth I had come in contact with through a creative expression workshop, and a deep and poignant voice of an elder, older man coming closer to his retirement graced this space. These voices paint a snapshot of the humans behind this big enormous city.
This city, these people, our spirit came together at a meeting point.
This point is where life is.
Where the sound meets the earth.
May you always hear it rumbling,
with love.

A lay Buddhist in the Thai Forest tradition doing her best to reflect/share dhamma in a accessible way, ‘transforming suffering into the divine’. Mel is a survivor of child abuse and sprout from a family with ‘mad’ folk. Having a ‘spiritual emergency/emergence’ in her early 20s. She situates herself within the psychiatric survivor movement. Creating communities and pedagogies of care.

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