Alexander Varty
Lulu Performing Arts Society
When Andrew Kim plays the Haven’s Phoenix Auditorium on Saturday October 21, we’re sure you’ll have never heard anything like it.
Unless, that is, you were hanging out in the Saskatchewan school system last month.
When we caught up with the peripatetic multi-instrumentalist, Kim had just checked into a Golden hotel, with just one more day’s driving between him and his Vancouver home. He was also winding down from doing 70 school shows in 42 days as Andy the Musical Scientist, a hyper-enthusiastic advocate for home-made instruments and hand-made music.
On Gabriola, however, Kim will present an all-ages concert featuring some of his beautifully odd and otherworldly original compositions—but he’s not going to leave his Moroccan Hockey Stick behind.
Becoming a musical inventor, the former Delhi 2 Dublin sitarist and student of Indian classical music explains, was initially a matter of necessity.
“If you learn sitar in India there are always people around who can repair it,” Kim says.
“But it’s kind of a high-maintenance instrument, so if you bring it back to Canada you have to learn how to repair the instrument yourself, and in the process of learning to repair my own sitar I kind of learned the mechanics of how instruments work.”
Even before learning sitar, and sitar repair, Kim had mastered the cello, so it was natural for him to apply his knowledge of fretting and bowing to instruments of his own design.
The aforementioned Moroccan Hockey Stick, for instance, is a playful, amplified approximation of the North African bass lute known as the guembri. Some of his other instruments are built around old canoe paddles, decommissioned skateboards, and discarded tennis racquets—and while they’re wonderful sight gags, they sound great, too.
Kim plans to start his Lulu Performing Arts concert by demonstrating how his various devices work, before offering some songs and a longer, improvised “sound journey”.
“I’ve always felt that music is a connection to spirit, and that there’s as shamanic element to music,” he says. “I don’t talk about it too much, but I definitely think it’s there —and if people get it, they get it!”
Lulu presents Andrew Kim Saturday, October 21st, 7:30pm at the Phoenix Auditorium.
Advance tickets are $25, door $30, students $10. If you’re a parent or guardian, Lulu is offering you a special price of $10 if you bring your kid(s)!
More info and tickets are available online at luluperformingarts.ca and at Nova Art & Craft Boutique. See you at the show!
Support
Local News
Recent Comments