NOISE AND CRIES: Rewiring Traditional Voices and Rhythms with bela (굉음과 울음: 전통적 리듬과 목소리를 새로 엮기)

The Center for Ethnomusicology and the Computer Music Center at Columbia University invite you to a free performance and discussion with bela (they/them), a Paju, South Korea-born and Berlin-based performance artist and electronic musician. After their set, Ethnomusicology PhD student and freelance music journalist James Gui will moderate a discussion about their work.

Originally from Paju, South Korea, bela is a musician and a performance artist based in Berlin. They are known for electronic music performance merging pungmul – a Korean folk act rooted in agricultural traditions and linked to the 80s South Korean democracy movement – and vocals inspired by extreme metal. bela shapes pungmul into the ritual for queer rage and grief with sub-heavy distortions and cries. Since moving to Berlin in the autumn of 2022, they have been announced as a participant of SHAPE+ Platform 23′-24′. Their releases include Guidelines (2021), 2020 (2021), and why are you so lost sweetie (2019).

bela has performed in experimental music festivals including CTM Festival(DE), Ephemera(PL), Unsound Kraków(PL), and Rewire Festival(NL). As a sound artist, they have also participated in European art festivals transmediale(DE) and EVA International(IE). They have shared the stage with other experimental artists like Okkyung Lee, Pharmakon, and Eli Keszler. And as a curator/programmer, bela co-organizes Sorrow Club: a mixed event series in Berlin and Seoul that has featured music and performance from global acts such as Ana Roxanne, Lucy Liyou, and Salamanda. In April, their upcoming album Noise and Cries 굉음과 울음 will be released by Subtext Recordings.