On The Han(한/恨) and Heung(흥/興) Odyssey: Global Sounds of Resilience & Joy, Korean-Canadian clarinetist Cecilia Kang, along with pianist Angela Park and Wanyun Ensemble, showcases the breadth of the clarinet as a solo and ensemble instrument, seeking to highlight its sweeping lyricism as much as its prickly harmonies. Each of the album’s nine compositions, all written by living composers, take a different stylistic approach, ranging from minimalism to sweeping cinematic songs to neoclassical odes. And while the record takes various twists and turns, it serves one central idea—the han and the heung, or the dichotomy of sorrow and joy—using each piece as a vehicle toward understanding the complexity of human emotion.
In practice, much of the album sounds serene, as if the music is floating among the clouds. Eleanor Alberga’s “Arirang Madrigal” opens the album with a pleasant, shimmering meditation rooted in folksy melodies and rich harmonies; Marc Mellits’ “Andromeda” is rooted in bright-hued, looped phrases; Jessie Montgomery’s “Peace” features an intimate duet of rolled piano and gentle clarinet. These pieces are satisfactory, but they rarely find any thorniness or dissonance, leading them to feel monotonous. More intriguing are the prancing and sometimes thunderous melodies of Alberga’s “Duo from Dancing with the Shadow” or the squealing, inquisitive style of Kalaisan Kalaichelvan’s “Do the waters stutter?” which offer surprising and unexpected phrases, emphasizing the clarinet’s versatility.
Ultimately, in both the delicate and the dense moments, The Han(한/恨) and Heung(흥/興) Odyssey: Global Sounds of Resilience & Joy shows that within ever-changing melodies, there’s a rainbow of feelings, sounds, and styles yet to uncover.
Vanessa Ague is a violinist and music writer currently studying Arts and Culture Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She runs the experimental music blog theroadtosound.com, and her writing has appeared in The Wire, Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, and Tone Glow.