KOCHI: Since their formation in 2016, the South Korean band Tutelary Golmaegi has come a long way. The troupe has since performed at several world-leading theatres and music festivals. Each performance is a blend of arts, 3D motion graphics, art films, and more, and the accompanying music is solely of percussion music, intricate and skilful. It brings to the fore the rhythms unique to the eastern coastal shamanic music, which comforts and heals the hearts of tired, modern people.
The crew of Tutelary Golmaegi includes Hong Sung Hyun, Shin Yaein, Ahn Sang Yong, Jang Jihoon, Lee Pyungeun, Cha Sung Eun, Chun Sung Dae and executive producer Casey Heekyung Ahn. Recently, the troupe had performed at Rajagiri Business School in Kochi. Excerpts from an interview with the band, where Casey acted as the translator.
How did the band come together? What is it that you guys want to pursue?
We have all been playing music ever since we were young. All of us were from the same college. We have been playing as a team for ten years now. The music is derived from the eastern coastal shamanic music, so it is very visional and special among the percussionists in Korea. Hong studied under the master of eastern coastal shamanic music. So, what we want to pursue with this band is to cultivate a solid identity as percussionists and specialists in this genre. In Korea, shamanic music is less popular now than before. So, we aim to bring this back to the forefront.
The name ‘Tutelary Golmaegi’ is rooted in Korean culture. What is the meaning of the name?
‘Tutelary’ means ‘Guardian’, and ‘Golmaegi’ is the highest deity among the gods. As I said, our music is derived from eastern coastal shamanic music, and this shamanic ritual has chapters containing different stories. Since it’s a coastal area, we used to have ritual ceremonies honouring God and we prayed for our well-being. We used to pray to the ‘Golmaegi’ to protect and guide us. We are no longer doing the rituals as we live in the modern society. What we did was that we took that idea and concept and express it through our music.
What is the intent behind these workshops? What opened you up to the idea of conducting workshops in India?
Primarily, we needed to figure out how much knowledge people had of Korean music, so we wanted to teach and introduce basic rhythm and understanding of percussion. Since our music has complicated percussive rhythms, we wanted to teach that to beginners. We also aim to have good collaborations with various Indian musicians as not only does it pave the way for jam sessions and sharing our music, but we can also learn about Indian music through the workshops. This is our fourth visit to India, and we are looking for ways to expand our collaborative opportunities with regional musicians.
Recently, you had held a few workshops in India. What were the responses like?
We were amazed at the way the audience accepted our music. They responded amazingly. The responses we got while performing during the hornbill festival of Nagaland were something we did not anticipate; people were singing and dancing along with us even though this was their first-ever exposure to our music. We got an entirely different experience from Rajagiri as we went in expecting a gentle crowd but they got quite active. Our overall experience with the audience here is fantastic.
Have you ever been exposed to traditional or contemporary Indian music?
Personally, I had a collaboration with Indian music four years ago, and that is what I would say pushed our band to come to India and conduct workshops and collaborate with musicians. Indian percussive music is very unique and can seduce the audience. The experience I had was very amusing. We wanted to have more collaborations this year, but unfortunately, we couldn’t develop relationships because of the cyclones and everything.
All music evokes an emotion in audiences. What kind of emotions are you aiming to evoke in your audience?
There are two types of music; one is percussive music, which entertains and creates an ecstatic feeling in our audiences. We want to make people dance and sing. Like we say in Korea, everyone has their sadness inside them, which they won’t reveal to the world. We intend to celebrate life and all its different emotions with our music. The music we produce serves as a space for people to forget all their worries, stress and problems. With another type of music, Shamanic music, we try to pamper and heal people.
Where do you see this band five years from now? To what degree or extent do you think this band will have evolved?
We aim to develop new repertoires through all these international collaborations and workshops. We are not restricting ourselves to just the international musicians. We aim to infuse our music with various dance forms, western music and media arts. We want to be exposed in both domestic and international areas. The band will have achieved so much in five years’ time.