jeudi 15 novembre 2012

Click + Listen #36 : KANG SAN-EH

KANG SAN-EH / 강산에 (KOR)
South Korea
More info on Wikipedia

Genres : rock, folk, funk, ballad, among others

Band Kang San-eh 밴드 강산에 - Time to Dance (LIVE PLANET S3, video by PlasticTVNetwork)

Last year, when I was looking for videos of live performances of some indie Korean bands, I discovered the awesome videos by PlasticTVNetwork and watched the video above of "Time to Dance" by Kang San-eh. What a surprise when I heard of his Paris concert a few months ago !

To celebrate his 20 years of music career, artist Kang San-eh, the "Korean Bob Dylan" came for the first time in Europe to perform a show at Divan du Monde in Paris, France. He is well-known for being one of the best Korean singers, songwriters and interprets. He's like a poet with his deep lyrics. He debuted with the song "I Say" in 1994.

"Off stage, he is engaged in supporting independent groups, searching thus to preserve the diversity of the Korean music against the stamping machine of mainstream commercial music." Source : the concert producer's website, Pas de Dieux.

The website Electric Ground talked about one of his famous songs, "Raguyo / 라구요", for its good lyrics. Check out the great article here, explaining the meaning of the song including its English translation.

To non-Korean speakers, I suggest you to search lyrics and translations, when it's possible, if you like any of his songs. I'm sure that his songs are full of meaning and worth to discover. You will also find a lot of his music videos and live performances on Youtube with these keywords : "Kang San-eh", "강산에", "Band Kang San-eh", "밴드강산에". Be sure to check out his last album "Kiss" released in 2011. The translated lyrics of his songs might be seen on the screen on stage, so you can understand what he's singing, like his Paris concert at Divan du Monde in 2012.


Kang San-eh 강산에 - live at Divan du Monde - medley video by Orient-Extreme

You can notice the diversity of genres in his songs in this official Soundclound set :


My favorite songs of this playlist :
1. KISS [KISS] (2011)
2. 떡됐슴다 [KISS] (2011)
4. 거꾸로 강을 거슬러 오르는 저 힘찬 연어들처럼 [연어] (1998)
6. 꼭 껴안고 [물수건] (2008)
8. 넌 할 수 있어 [나는 사춘기] (2004)
9. 널 보고 있으면 [나는 사춘기] (1994)
10. 눈물 핑 [물수건] (2008)
11. 답 [물수건] (2008)
17. 자유 새 [삐따기] (1996)


I also like his song "Time To Dance", here's the album version :




That song makes me smile ^_^, because he keeps singing the same words "그날 아침"["geu-nal a-chim", which means "that morning" ?] along this nice and joyful melody :


How do his live performances of his famous songs look like ?


Live Music Performance Nanjang Ep18 on Arirang TV


Kang San-eh 강산에 - 꼭껴안고 (2008 live)


Kang San-eh 강산에 - 넌 할 수 있어 (live)


Discover other great artists on the CLICK+LISTEN series.