“In a traditional concert, sounds move and the audience remains seated”
In “Symphony for 20 rooms”,
The sounds move, the audience also moves.
In my “Omnibus music No.1 (1961),
sounds sit down, the audience visits them.
In “Exposition of Music,
sounds sit, the audience plays with or attacks them.
In “Moving theatre’ in the street,
sounds move in the street and the audience encounters them “unexpectedly” in the street.
– From Nam June Paik’s “New ontology of music” –

Over Music is an experimental music festival exploring a notion of the “ontology of music” that breaks the boundaries between sound performances and the audience. The program is an extension of the exploration of avant-garde music practiced by Nam June Paik and shared with John Cage and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, as well as a reinterpretation of Nam June Paik as a composer who mixed performance and music.

Nam June Paik’s performances and happenings blurred the boundaries between musician, composer and audience thus transcending traditional art and sound practices to offer a ‘surprise’ experience. Over Music focuses on Nam June Paik’s new approach to arts and sound as well as role in Fluxus music. The program is not simply a celebration of Nam June Paik’s pioneering interest in experimental sound art. In addition it will aim to further develop accompanying theoretical events along with performances based on thorough research of Nam June Paik, music history and theory.

Over Music is a monthly program introducing contemporary experimental sound, music and media performances held every last Saturday of the month at Nam June Paik Art Center. The program takes as a reference point Nam June Paik’s early career as a composer to explore his relationship to music and recontextualize him within contemporary music practice.

Tae-hwan Kang has been invited to perform at the Nam June Paik Art Center with the Tae-hwan Kang Free Music Trio on Saturday, June 27th. Well known for their improvisational jazz that refuses being restricted to any specific musical format, this group will present Violin without String and Piano without Hammer, inspired by Nam June Paik’s 1962 score/collage Bagatelles Americaines.

Kang’s free jazz trio performance resonates with Nam June Paik’s [string-less violin played with sincerity?] both deny an interest in the pure arrangement of sound or notes and instead seek to collage time and incorporate contingency. Kang’s performance promises to be an opportunity to re-interpret his non-traditional approach to the saxophone in the light of Nam June Paik’s innovative and convention breaking ideas.

Since the beginning of his career in the 90s, Kang has been well-received by numerous critics. His performances in Japan last March and May, as well as his participation in the Avant-garde Jazz Festival in Germany, have been described as “the most representative expressions of contemporary Asia” by various international critics.