Gougalōn

Sub-titles ‘Scenes from a street theatre’, this 20-minute work was originally commissioned by Ensemble Modern and the Siemens Arts Program for the project “into …”, and first performed in Berlin and Frankfurt in 2009. The final version was commissioned by Ensemble intercontemporain for performance in Paris in 2012. 
The title, derived from Old High German, refers to a Proustian moment experienced by the composer on a trip to Hong Kong and Guangzhou in 2008–09. The atmosphere of the old and poor residential neighbourhoods, not far from supersized video screens, ultramodern buildings, and glittering temples of consumption, brought to mind long forgotten childhood experiences of Seoul in the 1960s before the radical modernisation, a period characterised by poverty and military dictatorship. In particular she was reminded of a troupe of entertainers seen a number of times as a child in a suburb of Seoul. Gougalōn is an ‘imaginary folk music’ that is stylised, broken within itself, and only apparently primitive.